US8775901B2 - Data recovery for defective word lines during programming of non-volatile memory arrays - Google Patents

Data recovery for defective word lines during programming of non-volatile memory arrays Download PDF

Info

Publication number
US8775901B2
US8775901B2 US13/193,148 US201113193148A US8775901B2 US 8775901 B2 US8775901 B2 US 8775901B2 US 201113193148 A US201113193148 A US 201113193148A US 8775901 B2 US8775901 B2 US 8775901B2
Authority
US
United States
Prior art keywords
data
pages
page
memory
written
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Active, expires
Application number
US13/193,148
Other versions
US20130031429A1 (en
Inventor
Eran Sharon
Idan Alrod
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
SanDisk Technologies LLC
Original Assignee
SanDisk Technologies LLC
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by SanDisk Technologies LLC filed Critical SanDisk Technologies LLC
Priority to US13/193,148 priority Critical patent/US8775901B2/en
Assigned to SANDISK TECHNOLOGIES INC. reassignment SANDISK TECHNOLOGIES INC. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: ALROD, IDAN, SHARON, ERAN
Priority to PCT/US2012/048080 priority patent/WO2013016393A1/en
Priority to TW101127336A priority patent/TW201316341A/en
Publication of US20130031429A1 publication Critical patent/US20130031429A1/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of US8775901B2 publication Critical patent/US8775901B2/en
Assigned to SANDISK TECHNOLOGIES LLC reassignment SANDISK TECHNOLOGIES LLC CHANGE OF NAME (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: SANDISK TECHNOLOGIES INC
Active legal-status Critical Current
Adjusted expiration legal-status Critical

Links

Images

Classifications

    • GPHYSICS
    • G11INFORMATION STORAGE
    • G11CSTATIC STORES
    • G11C29/00Checking stores for correct operation ; Subsequent repair; Testing stores during standby or offline operation
    • G11C29/04Detection or location of defective memory elements, e.g. cell constructio details, timing of test signals
    • GPHYSICS
    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06FELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F11/00Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
    • G06F11/07Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance
    • G06F11/08Error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation, e.g. by using checking codes
    • G06F11/10Adding special bits or symbols to the coded information, e.g. parity check, casting out 9's or 11's
    • G06F11/1008Adding special bits or symbols to the coded information, e.g. parity check, casting out 9's or 11's in individual solid state devices
    • G06F11/1048Adding special bits or symbols to the coded information, e.g. parity check, casting out 9's or 11's in individual solid state devices using arrangements adapted for a specific error detection or correction feature
    • GPHYSICS
    • G11INFORMATION STORAGE
    • G11CSTATIC STORES
    • G11C29/00Checking stores for correct operation ; Subsequent repair; Testing stores during standby or offline operation
    • G11C29/70Masking faults in memories by using spares or by reconfiguring
    • G11C29/78Masking faults in memories by using spares or by reconfiguring using programmable devices
    • G11C29/80Masking faults in memories by using spares or by reconfiguring using programmable devices with improved layout
    • G11C29/816Masking faults in memories by using spares or by reconfiguring using programmable devices with improved layout for an application-specific layout
    • G11C29/82Masking faults in memories by using spares or by reconfiguring using programmable devices with improved layout for an application-specific layout for EEPROMs
    • GPHYSICS
    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06FELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F11/00Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
    • G06F11/07Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance
    • G06F11/08Error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation, e.g. by using checking codes
    • G06F11/10Adding special bits or symbols to the coded information, e.g. parity check, casting out 9's or 11's
    • G06F11/1008Adding special bits or symbols to the coded information, e.g. parity check, casting out 9's or 11's in individual solid state devices
    • G06F11/1072Adding special bits or symbols to the coded information, e.g. parity check, casting out 9's or 11's in individual solid state devices in multilevel memories

Definitions

  • This invention relates generally to semiconductor memory circuits such as electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) and flash EEPROM, and specifically to the recovery of data of defective word-lines in such memory circuits.
  • EEPROM electrically erasable programmable read-only memory
  • flash EEPROM flash EEPROM
  • Solid-state memory capable of nonvolatile storage of charge, particularly in the form of EEPROM and flash EEPROM packaged as a small form factor card, has recently become the storage of choice in a variety of mobile and handheld devices, notably information appliances and consumer electronics products.
  • RAM random access memory
  • flash memory is non-volatile, and retaining its stored data even after power is turned off.
  • ROM read only memory
  • flash memory is rewritable similar to a disk storage device.
  • flash memory is increasingly being used in mass storage applications.
  • Conventional mass storage based on rotating magnetic medium such as hard drives and floppy disks, is unsuitable for the mobile and handheld environment.
  • disk drives tend to be bulky, are prone to mechanical failure and have high latency and high power requirements. These undesirable attributes make disk-based storage impractical in most mobile and portable applications.
  • flash memory both embedded and in the form of a removable card are ideally suited in the mobile and handheld environment because of its small size, low power consumption, high speed and high reliability features.
  • Flash EEPROM is similar to EEPROM (electrically erasable and programmable read-only memory) in that it is a non-volatile memory that can be erased and have new data written or “programmed” into their memory cells. Both utilize a floating (unconnected) conductive gate, in a field effect transistor structure, positioned over a channel region in a semiconductor substrate, between source and drain regions. A control gate is then provided over the floating gate. The threshold voltage characteristic of the transistor is controlled by the amount of charge that is retained on the floating gate. That is, for a given level of charge on the floating gate, there is a corresponding voltage (threshold) that must be applied to the control gate before the transistor is turned “on” to permit conduction between its source and drain regions.
  • flash memory such as Flash EEPROM allows entire blocks of memory cells to be erased at the same time.
  • the floating gate can hold a range of charges and therefore can be programmed to any threshold voltage level within a threshold voltage window.
  • the size of the threshold voltage window is delimited by the minimum and maximum threshold levels of the device, which in turn correspond to the range of the charges that can be programmed onto the floating gate.
  • the threshold window generally depends on the memory device's characteristics, operating conditions and history. Each distinct, resolvable threshold voltage level range within the window may, in principle, be used to designate a definite memory state of the cell.
  • each storage element of a flash EEPROM array it is common in current commercial products for each storage element of a flash EEPROM array to store a single bit of data by operating in a binary mode, where two ranges of threshold levels of the storage element transistors are defined as storage levels.
  • the threshold levels of transistors correspond to ranges of charge levels stored on their storage elements.
  • the trend is to further increase the density of data storage of such memory arrays by storing more than one bit of data in each storage element transistor. This is accomplished by defining more than two threshold levels as storage states for each storage element transistor, four such states (2 bits of data per storage element) now being included in commercial products. More storage states, such as 16 states per storage element, are also being implemented.
  • Each storage element memory transistor has a certain total range (window) of threshold voltages in which it may practically be operated, and that range is divided into the number of states defined for it plus margins between the states to allow for them to be clearly differentiated from one another. Obviously, the more bits a memory cell is configured to store, the smaller is the margin of error it has to operate in.
  • the transistor serving as a memory cell is typically programmed to a “programmed” state by one of two mechanisms.
  • hot electron injection a high voltage applied to the drain accelerates electrons across the substrate channel region.
  • control gate pulls the hot electrons through a thin gate dielectric onto the floating gate.
  • tunnel injection a high voltage is applied to the control gate relative to the substrate. In this way, electrons are pulled from the substrate to the intervening floating gate.
  • program has been used historically to describe writing to a memory by injecting electrons to an initially erased charge storage unit of the memory cell so as to alter the memory state, it has now been used interchangeable with more common Willis such as “write” or “record.”
  • the memory device may be erased by a number of mechanisms.
  • a memory cell is electrically erasable, by applying a high voltage to the substrate relative to the control gate so as to induce electrons in the floating gate to tunnel through a thin oxide to the substrate channel region (i.e., Fowler-Nordheim tunneling.)
  • the EEPROM is erasable byte by byte.
  • the memory is electrically erasable either all at once or one or more minimum erasable blocks at a time, where a minimum erasable block may consist of one or more sectors and each sector may store 512 bytes or more of data.
  • the memory device typically comprises one or more memory chips that may be mounted on a card.
  • Each memory chip comprises an array of memory cells supported by peripheral circuits such as decoders and erase, write and read circuits.
  • peripheral circuits such as decoders and erase, write and read circuits.
  • the more sophisticated memory devices also come with a controller that performs intelligent and higher level memory operations and interfacing.
  • non-volatile solid-state memory devices There are many commercially successful non-volatile solid-state memory devices being used today. These memory devices may be flash EEPROM or may employ other types of nonvolatile memory cells. Examples of flash memory and systems and methods of manufacturing them are given in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,070,032, 5,095,344, 5,315,541, 5,343,063, and 5,661,053, 5,313,421 and 6,222,762. In particular, flash memory devices with NAND string structures are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,570,315, 5,903,495, 6,046,935. Also nonvolatile memory devices are also manufactured from memory cells with a dielectric layer for storing charge. Instead of the conductive floating gate elements described earlier, a dielectric layer is used.
  • Such memory devices utilizing dielectric storage element have been described by Eitan et al., “NROM: A Novel Localized Trapping, 2-Bit Nonvolatile Memory Cell,” IEEE Electron Device Letters, vol. 21, no. 11, November 2000, pp. 543-545.
  • An ONO dielectric layer extends across the channel between source and drain diffusions. The charge for one data bit is localized in the dielectric layer adjacent to the drain, and the charge for the other data bit is localized in the dielectric layer adjacent to the source.
  • U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,768,192 and 6,011,725 disclose a nonvolatile memory cell having a trapping dielectric sandwiched between two silicon dioxide layers. Multi-state data storage is implemented by separately reading the binary states of the spatially separated charge storage regions within the dielectric.
  • a “page” of memory elements are read or programmed together.
  • a row typically contains several interleaved pages or it may constitute one page. All memory elements of a page will be read or programmed together.
  • ECC error correction code
  • the ECC is most commonly stored together with a unit group of user data from which the ECC has been calculated.
  • the unit group of user data may be a sector or a multi-sector page.
  • the ECC can be designed to correct a predetermined number of error bits. The more bits it has to correct, the more complex and computationally intensive will the ECC be.
  • conventional ECC is designed based on the expected worst-case cell error rate at the end of life of the memory device. Thus, they have to correct a maximum number of error bits up to the far tail end of a statistical population of error rate.
  • ECC Error Correction Code
  • a broken word-line will have a high resistive connection, as a result of which the cells on far end of the break will see a voltage drop during program and verify operations. As a result, the threshold voltage distribution for the broken word-line will show un-distinguishable states. Consequently, both of these sorts of defects can be detrimental to memory operation if not detected and lead to the loss of data that is to be written on such word lines.
  • a memory of operating a memory system including an array of flash memory cells formed along a plurality of word lines each capable of storing one or more pages of data.
  • the method includes receiving a first data page, storing the received first data page in a first buffer, and writing the first data page from the first buffer into a word line of the flash memory.
  • a first page of parity data is generated for the received first page of data and stored in a second buffer.
  • one or more additional pages of data are received sequentially, and for each of additional received page of data, the preceding page of received data in the first buffer is replaced with the succeeding page of data, the succeeding page of data is written from the first buffer into a corresponding word line of the flash memory, and the page of parity data stored in the second buffer is updated as a function of previously stored parity data and the page.
  • the method subsequently determines whether the first data page and the additional pages of data were written correctly, and, in response to determining that one of the data pages is written incorrectly, determines the correct data for the incorrectly written page based upon the page of parity data and others of the pages as read from the array.
  • a method of operating a memory system includes a memory circuit, the memory circuit having an array of non-volatile memory cells formed along a plurality of word lines each capable of storing one or more pages of data, and a controller circuit controlling the transfer of data between the memory system and a host and managing the storage of data on the memory circuit.
  • the method includes performing a write operation of a plurality of pages of data into the memory array.
  • the write operation includes receiving from the host the plurality of pages at the controller circuit; computing a data check result from the plurality of pages, transferring the plurality of pages from the controller circuit to the memory circuit, and writing the plurality of pages into array.
  • the controller discards one or more of the pages subsequent to being written.
  • the data check result is a many to one transformation such that plurality of data pages cannot be reconstructed based solely upon the data check result.
  • the write operation also includes, subsequent to writing the plurality of pages into the array, performing a post-write verify operation to determine whether the plurality of pages were correctly written, wherein the post-write verify operation is performed as part of the write operation independently of a separate host command for performing it.
  • the method further includes reading one or more of the other data pages from the memory array and reconstructing the first page from the data check result and the other data pages read from the memory array.
  • FIG. 1 illustrates a host in communication with a memory device in which the features of the present invention are embodied.
  • FIG. 2 illustrates schematically a non-volatile memory cell.
  • FIG. 3 illustrates an example of an NOR array of memory cells.
  • FIG. 4 illustrates a page of memory cells, organized for example in the NAND configuration, being sensed or programmed in parallel.
  • FIG. 5A illustrates in more detail the sense modules shown in FIG. 1 to contain a bank of p sense modules across an array of memory cells.
  • FIG. 5B illustrates a sense module including a sense amplifier.
  • FIG. 6 illustrates schematically an example of a memory array organized in erasable blocks.
  • FIG. 7 illustrates a binary memory having a population of cells with each cell being in one of two possible states.
  • FIG. 8 illustrates a multi-state memory having a population of cells with each cell being in one of eight possible states.
  • FIG. 9 illustrates schematically a data page containing an ECC field.
  • FIG. 10A shows a normal distribution of error rate, with the percentage of the population in various ranges of standard deviations a.
  • FIG. 10B illustrate the distribution of FIG. 10A in a table format.
  • FIG. 11 illustrates an example of protecting a block's worth of memory data with 64 word-lines against at most k corrupt pages.
  • FIG. 12 is a simplified diagram of a memory system in which various aspects of the memory can be implemented.
  • FIG. 13 is a flow chart of an exemplary embodiment illustrating the programming of a block of data and recovering the data from a defective word-line.
  • FIG. 1 illustrates a host in communication with a memory device in which the features of the present invention are embodied.
  • the host 80 typically sends data to be stored at the memory device 90 or retrieves data by reading the memory device 90 .
  • the memory device 90 includes one or more memory chip 100 managed by a controller 102 .
  • the memory chip 100 includes a memory array 200 of memory cells with each cell capable of being configured as a multi-level cell (“MLC”) for storing multiple bits of data.
  • MLC multi-level cell
  • the memory chip also includes peripheral circuits such as sense modules 480 , data latches 430 and I/O circuits 440 .
  • An on-chip control circuitry 110 controls low-level memory operations of each chip.
  • the control circuitry 110 is an on-chip controller that cooperates with the peripheral circuits to perform memory operations on the memory array 200 .
  • the control circuitry 110 typically includes a state machine 112 to provide chip level control of memory operations.
  • the host 80 communicates and interacts with the memory chip 100 via the controller 102 .
  • the controller 102 co-operates with the memory chip and controls and manages higher level memory operations. For example, in a host write, the host 10 sends data to be written to the memory array 100 in logical sectors allocated from a file system of the host's operating system.
  • a memory block management system implemented in the controller stages the sectors and maps and stores them to the physical structure of the memory array.
  • a firmware 60 provides codes to implement the functions of the controller 102 .
  • An error correction code (“ECC”) processor 62 processes ECC during operations of the memory device.
  • the controller 102 is implemented within the host.
  • FIG. 2 illustrates schematically a non-volatile memory cell.
  • the memory cell 10 can be implemented by a field-effect transistor having a charge storage unit 20 , such as a floating gate or a dielectric layer.
  • the memory cell 10 also includes a source 14 , a drain 16 , and a control gate 30 .
  • non-volatile solid-state memory devices There are many commercially successful non-volatile solid-state memory devices being used today. These memory devices may employ different types of memory cells, each type having one or more charge storage element.
  • Typical non-volatile memory cells include EEPROM and flash EEPROM. Examples of EEPROM cells and methods of manufacturing them are given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,595,924. Examples of flash EEPROM cells, their uses in memory systems and methods of manufacturing them are given in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,070,032, 5,095,344, 5,315,541, 5,343,063, 5,661,053, 5,313,421 and 6,222,762. In particular, examples of memory devices with NAND cell structures are described in U.S. Pat. Nos.
  • the memory state of a cell is usually read by sensing the conduction current across the source and drain electrodes of the cell when a reference voltage is applied to the control gate.
  • a threshold voltage is defined as the voltage on the control gate that will just turn on the cell with the given charge.
  • the range of charge programmable onto the floating gate defines a corresponding threshold voltage window or a corresponding conduction current window.
  • the threshold voltage for a given memory state under test is set at the control gate and detect if the conduction current is lower or higher than a threshold current.
  • the detection of the conduction current relative to a threshold current is accomplished by examining the rate the conduction current is discharging through the capacitance of the bit line or a known capacitor.
  • a memory device may have memory cells having a threshold window that ranges from ⁇ 1.5V to 5V. This provides a maximum width of 6.5V. If the memory cell is to store 16 states, each state may occupy from 200 mV to 300 mV in the threshold window. This will require higher precision in programming and reading operations in order to be able to achieve the required resolution.
  • the memory array 200 is typically organized as a two-dimensional array of memory cells arranged in rows and columns and addressable by word lines and bit lines.
  • the array can be formed according to an NOR type or an NAND type architecture.
  • FIG. 3 illustrates an example of an NOR array of memory cells.
  • each row of memory cells are connected by their sources 14 and drains 16 in a daisy-chain manner. This design is sometimes referred to as a virtual ground design.
  • the cells 10 in a row have their control gates 30 connected to a word line, such as word line 42 .
  • the cells in a column have their sources and drains respectively connected to selected bit lines, such as bit lines 34 and 36 .
  • FIG. 4 illustrates a page of memory cells, organized for example in the NAND configuration, being sensed or programmed in parallel.
  • FIG. 4 essentially shows a bank of NAND strings 50 in the memory array 200 .
  • a NAND string 50 comprises of a series of memory transistors (e.g., 4, 8, 16 or higher) daisy-chained by their sources and drains.
  • a pair of select transistors S 1 , S 2 controls the memory transistors chain's connection to the external via the NAND string's source terminal and drain terminal respectively.
  • the source select transistor S 1 when the source select transistor S 1 is turned on, the source terminal is coupled to a source line 34 .
  • each memory transistor 10 in the chain acts as a memory cell. It has a charge storage element 20 to store a given amount of charge so as to represent an intended memory state.
  • a control gate of each memory transistor allows control over read and write operations.
  • the control gates of corresponding memory transistors of a row of NAND string are all connected to the same word line (such as WL 0 , WL 1 , . . . )
  • a control gate of each of the select transistors S 1 , S 2 (accessed via select lines SGS and SGD respectively) provides control access to the NAND string via its source the final and drain terminal respectively.
  • a “page” such as the page 70 is a group of memory cells enabled to be sensed or programmed in parallel. This is accomplished by a corresponding page of sense amplifiers.
  • the page 70 is along a row and is sensed by a sensing voltage applied to the control gates of the cells of the page connected in common to the word line WL 3 .
  • each cell such as cell 10 is accessible by a sense amplifier via a bit line 36 .
  • the page referred to above is a physical page memory cells or sense amplifiers. Depending on context, in the case where each cell is storing.
  • FIG. 5A illustrates in more detail the sense modules shown in FIG. 1 to contain a bank of p sense modules across an array of memory cells.
  • the entire bank of p sense modules 480 operating in parallel allows a group (or physical page) of p cells 10 along a row to be read or programmed in parallel.
  • sense module 1 will sense a current I 1 in cell 1
  • sense module 2 will sense a current I 2 in cell 2
  • sense module p will sense a current I p in cell p, etc.
  • the total cell current i TOT for the page flowing out of the source line 34 into an aggregate node CLSRC and from there to ground will be a summation of all the currents in the p cells.
  • a row of memory cells with a common word line forms two or more pages, where the memory cells in a page are read and programmed in parallel.
  • one page is accessed by even bit lines and the other page is accessed by odd bit lines.
  • a physical page of sensing circuits is coupled to either the even bit lines or to the odd bit lines at any one time.
  • the physical page may be 64 k or larger.
  • the group is a run of the entire row of cells. This is the so-called “all bit-line” architecture in which the page is constituted from a row of contiguous memory cells coupled respectively to contiguous bit lines.
  • FIG. 5B illustrates a sense module including a sense amplifier.
  • the sense amplifier 490 detects the conduction current of a cell is above or below a reference level.
  • the sensed results are latches in a corresponding set of latches 430 (see FIG. 1 ).
  • flash memory One important difference between flash memory and other type of memory is that a cell must be programmed from the erased state. That is the floating gate must first be emptied of charge. Programming then adds a desired amount of charge back to the floating gate. It does not support removing a portion of the charge from the floating to go from a more programmed state to a lesser one. This means that update data cannot overwrite existing one and must be written to a previous unwritten location.
  • the array of memory cells is divided into a large number of blocks of memory cells.
  • the block is the unit of erase. That is, each block contains the minimum number of memory cells that are erased together.
  • FIG. 6 illustrates schematically an example of a memory array organized in erasable blocks.
  • Programming of charge storage memory devices can only result in adding more charge to its charge storage elements. Therefore, prior to a program operation, existing charge in charge storage element of a memory cell must be removed (or erased).
  • a non-volatile memory such as EEPROM is referred to as a “Flash” EEPROM when an entire array of cells 200 , or significant groups of cells of the array, is electrically erased together (i.e., in a flash). Once erased, the group of cells can then be reprogrammed.
  • the group of cells erasable together may consist of one or more addressable erase unit 300 .
  • the erase unit or block 300 typically stores one or more pages of data, the page being a minimum unit of programming and reading, although more than one page may be programmed or read in a single operation.
  • Each page typically stores one or more sectors of data, the size of the sector being defined by the host system.
  • An example is a sector of 512 bytes of user data, following a standard established with magnetic disk drives, plus some number of bytes of overhead information about the user data and/or the block in with it is stored.
  • individual memory cells in the memory array 200 are accessible by word lines 42 such as WL 0 -WLy and bit lines 36 such as BL 0 -BLx.
  • the memory is organized into erase blocks, such as erase blocks 0 , 1 , . . . m.
  • the NAND string 50 contains 16 memory cells, then the first bank of NAND strings in the array will be accessible by select lines 44 and word lines 42 such as WL 0 to WL 15 .
  • the erase block 0 is organized to have all the memory cells of the first bank of NAND strings erased together. In another memory architecture, more than one bank of NAND strings may be erased together.
  • an example of nonvolatile memory is formed from an array of field-effect transistors, each having a charge storage layer between its channel region and its control gate.
  • the charge storage layer or unit can store a range of charges, giving rise to a range of threshold voltages for each field-effect transistor.
  • the range of possible threshold voltages spans a threshold window.
  • each resolvable zone is used to represent a different memory states for a memory cell.
  • the multiple memory states can be coded by one or more binary bits.
  • FIG. 7 illustrates a binary memory having a population of cells with each cell being in one of two possible states.
  • Each memory cell has its threshold window partitioned by a single demarcation level into two distinct zones.
  • a read demarcation level rV 1 between a lower zone and an upper zone, is used to determine to which zone the threshold level of the cell lies.
  • the cell is in an “erased” state if its threshold is located in the lower zone and is in a “programmed” state if its threshold is located in the upper zone.
  • FIG. 7 ( 1 ) illustrates the memory initially has all its cells in the “erased” state.
  • FIG. 7 ( 2 ) illustrates some of cells being programmed to the “programmed” state.
  • a 1-bit or binary code is used to code the memory states. For example, the bit value “1” represents the “erased” state and “0” represents the “programmed” state.
  • programming is performed by application of one or more programming voltage pulse. After each pulse, the cell is sensed to verify if the threshold has moved beyond a verify demarcation level vV 1 .
  • a memory with such memory cell partitioning is referred to as “binary” memory or Single-level Cell (“SLC”) memory. It will be seen that a binary or SLC memory operates with a wide margin of error as the entire threshold window is only occupied by two zones.
  • FIG. 8 illustrates a multi-state memory having a population of cells with each cell being in one of eight possible states.
  • Each memory cell has its threshold window partitioned by at least seven demarcation levels into eight distinct zones.
  • read demarcation levels rV 1 to rV 7 are used to determine to which zone the threshold level of the cell lies.
  • the cell is in an “erased” state if its threshold is located in the lowest zone and is in one of multiple “programmed” states if its threshold is located in the upper zones.
  • FIG. 8 ( 1 ) illustrates the memory initially has all its cells in the “erased” state.
  • FIG. 8 ( 2 ) illustrates some of cells being programmed to the “programmed” state.
  • a 3-bit code having lower, middle and upper bits can be used to represent each of the eight memory states.
  • the “0”, “1”, “2”, “3”, “4”, “5”, “6” and “7” states are respectively represented by “111”, “011”, “001”, “101”, “100”, “000”, “010” and “110”.
  • programming is performed by application of one or more programming voltage pulses. After each pulse, the cell is sensed to verify if the threshold has moved beyond a reference which is one of verify demarcation levels vV 1 to vV 7 .
  • a memory with such memory cell partitioning is referred to as “multi-state” memory or Multi-level Cell (“MLC”) memory.
  • MLC Multi-level Cell
  • a memory storing 4-bit code will have lower, first middle, second middle and upper bits, representing each of the sixteen states.
  • the threshold window will be demarcated by at least 15 demarcation levels into sixteen distinct zones.
  • a multi-state or MLC memory necessarily operates with a narrower margin of error compared to that of a memory with less partitioned zones.
  • the error rate increases with the number of bits stored in each cell.
  • error rate increases with the number of partitioned zones in the threshold window.
  • ECC Error Correction Code
  • Flash memory is prone to errors.
  • ECC error correction code
  • FIG. 9 illustrates schematically a data page containing an ECC field.
  • a physical page of memory cells is programmed and read in parallel by virtue of a corresponding page of sense modules operating in parallel.
  • the data page 70 ′ comprises a user portion 72 ′ and a system portion 74 ′.
  • the user portion 72 ′ is for storage of user data.
  • the system portion 74 ′ is generally used by the memory system for storage of system data.
  • Included in the system data is an ECC.
  • the ECC is computed for the data page.
  • the ECC is computed by the ECC processor 62 in the controller 102 (see FIG. 1 .)
  • a page of data is staged in the controller 102 and its ECC 76 ′ is computed by the ECC processor 62 .
  • the data page incorporating the ECC is then written to the memory array 200 .
  • the data page is latched in the data latches 430 and shifted out of the I/O circuits 440 to the controller 102 .
  • the data page's existing ECC is compared to a second version of the ECC computed on the read data.
  • the ECC typically includes an error detection code (“EDC”) for rapid detection of any error in the data page. If the EDC indicates the existence of any error in the read data page, the ECC is invoked to correct erroneous bits in the read data page.
  • EDC error detection code
  • the ECC can be designed to correct any number of error bits. The more bits it has to correct, the more complex and computationally intensive will the ECC be.
  • conventional ECC is designed based on the expected worst case cell error rate (“CER”) at the end of life (“EOL”) of the memory device. Thus, they have to correct a maximum number of error bits up to the far tail end of a statistical error population.
  • CER worst case cell error rate
  • EOL end of life
  • FIG. 10A shows a normal distribution of error rate with the percentage of the population in various ranges of standard deviations ⁇ . For example, only 2.1% of the population lies within the range from 2 ⁇ to 3 ⁇ . Only 0.1% of the population lies within the range from 3 ⁇ to 4 ⁇ .
  • FIG. 10B illustrate the distribution of FIG. 10A in a table format. It can be seen that only E-09 or one in one billion of the population lies beyond 6 ⁇ .
  • the last column in the table shows the estimated error rates for an example memory device in the worst case. For example, 5% of the population will have 1 error bit, 0.135% of the population will have 4 error bits and 1 in 1 billion of the population will have 42 error bits.
  • Each card has a capacity of 16 GB with data pages of 2 KB each. This amounts to a population of one billion pages of 2 KB each. To ensure not a single page of the sample of 125 memory cards will have an error at the end of life of the card, an ECC capable of correcting up to 42 bits will be needed.
  • Another approach by which broken word-line failure could be detected is to use a smart verify scheme, such as is described in US patent publications numbers US-2010-0091573-A1 and US-2010-0091568-A1, where the program voltage level is recorded when a certain number of bits pass the lower page program operation on each word-line.
  • Yet another approach to detect this sort of failure is the “forbidden zone” read, where a read is performed to determine whether any cells have a threshold voltages in the region between the ranges allotted to data states (see, for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,012,835; 7,616,484; or 7,716,538).
  • One set techniques for identifying broken word-lines and other defects that can manifest themselves during a write operation is known as Enhanced Post Write Read (EPWR).
  • EPWR Enhanced Post Write Read
  • an enhanced post write read process after the data is written (i.e., each of the cells have verified against its target value in the pulse-verify program cycle), it is read back and checked for accuracy. This is typically done at some point a block is written and is usually part of the program sequence, as opposed being executed in response to a command for this from the host.
  • the “enhanced” part is that the process is enhance by techniques to reduce the amount of data to transfer between the host and controller, read less data, execute less frequently, or other accelerate the process. More detail on EPWR processes are presented in US patent publication numbers 2011/0099418 A1, 2011/0099460 A1, and 2011/0096601 A1; U.S. provisional application No. 61/495,053 filed on Jun. 9, 2011; and U.S. application a application Ser. No. 13/193,083, entitled “Non-Volatile Memory and Method with Accelerated Post-Write Read Using Combined Verification of Multiple Pages” by Eran Sharon, filed Jul. 28, 2013.
  • One solution for the problem of data loss in case of such failure during ⁇ programming is to store the entire block in the controller RAM until the system finish programming the block and checking its validity through EPWR.
  • this solution requires a huge amount of controller RAM (typically 2 MB-4 MB), which is usually not acceptable due to high controller cost.
  • Another solution is to perform the EPWR before finishing the programming of the block by, for example, performing it in pipeline: as the memory programs word-line n (WLn), read and verify the validity of WLn-k, for some k ⁇ 1, where k is the pipeline depth.
  • the solution for the problem of data loss in case of NAND failure during direct MLC programming has several advantages over the prior art solutions.
  • the missing data is recovered using the k parity pages that are stored in the controller and using the other non-corrupted pages that are read from the block of the memory array and decoded. Once the recovery is complete the block can be reprogrammed and the temporary parity pages in the controller may be discarded upon successfully reprogramming.
  • a code that can be used is a Reed-Solomon (RS) code (e.g a RS code over GF(2 8 )).
  • RS Reed-Solomon
  • FIG. 11 An example of protecting a 2-bit per cell (or “X2”) block with 64 word-lines against at most k corrupt pages is shown is illustrated schematically in FIG. 11 .
  • the top portion 901 of represents a set of, in this example, 128 pages of data. From these data pages is derived a data check result of k parity pages, represented at 903 .
  • the transformation of the data pages in 901 to the k parity pages is many-to-one mapping, so that the system could not recreate the set of data pages 901 from the check result alone due to the information lost in the mapping.
  • the data pages are written into a block of flash memory, while the check data result of 903 will be kept in a buffer allowing it to be updated.
  • each column of symbols of 901 can be encoded using a Reed-Solomon (RS) code.
  • RS Reed-Solomon
  • FIG. 11 this is represented for a span of 8 bits using RS code is taken over GF(2 8 ), the data of the RS code being mapped into the parity of the RS code.
  • the coding scheme may be simplified, such that a set of single parity-check codes can be used instead of an RS code.
  • Such assumptions are reasonable, since the known NAND failure mechanisms such as broken word-lines, word-line to word-line shorts, control gate shorts, and so on affect a single word-line or two adjacent word-lines and hence corrupt two or four consecutive pages (assuming X2).
  • FIG. 12 a simplified diagram of a memory system 1001 .
  • Examples of such memory system could be a memory card, an embedded system, an SSD drive, and so on, as discussed above.
  • the system 1001 includes a controller circuit 1003 and one or more memory circuits such as shown at 1011 . Both the controller and the memory circuit are simplified for the purposes of this discussion, with those elements not entering in being suppressed.
  • Controller 1003 is shown to include the parity buffer 1007 , with the other elements of the controller, including the assorted logic circuitry, ECC circuitry, other RAM and so on, lumped into 1005 , where more detail on controllers can be found in the various references cited above.
  • the parity buffer 1007 is here shown as a distinct element, various embodiment are possible, including a dedicated memory section or just using the general purpose RAM, the rest of which is lumped into 1005 .
  • the memory section is represented by the memory device 1001 , where a single page buffer for writing data is shown at 1013 and a single block 1017 of array 1015 is explicitly labeled. More detail on memory circuits is given above and in the references cited above.
  • the data content 901 is written into a block such as 1017 and the parity data 902 is maintained in the buffer 1007 .
  • the exemplary embodiment has parity data buffer 1007 , but in other cases it could be stored (and computed) by the controller circuitry of the memory circuit.
  • the system programs the X2 block 1017 , it accumulates in the parity buffer 1007 the XOR of all the lower pages so far, and the XOR of all the upper pages so far (two pages altogether). (Similarly, for an N-bit per MLC embodiment, it would be N pages, with only 1 page for a binary embodiment.)
  • the system gets to the last page in the block, it has two pages in the controller, one which is the XOR of all the lower pages (called “PXL” in the following) and the other which is the XOR of all the upper pages (“PXU”).
  • PXL the XOR of all the lower pages
  • PXU the XOR of all the upper pages
  • the system can reprogram the data 901 and (assuming the subsequent program is successful) can discard the temporary XOR pages (PXL and PXU) from 1007 .
  • FIG. 12 only explicitly shows only a single die with a single plane ( 1011 , 1015 ). More generally, note that the XOR pages (PXL&PXU) can be joined to all dies and all plains. For example in a 4 die and 2 planes per die configuration, PXL will be the XOR of all the lower pages of in all the 4 dies and 2 planes (i.e. XOR of lowers of 8 blocks). This in turn reduces the storage requirement from the controller as we will need only two pages (32 KB+ECC redundancy), regardless of the number of dies and planes per die.
  • PXL&PXU XOR pages
  • Another variant that can reduce the amount of memory required in the controller is to store the XOR pages (PXL&PXU) in the Flash latches instead of the controller. More specifically, if there are enough latches in the Flash, then the generation and storage of the XOR pages (PXL&PXU) during programming, may be done internally in the Flash latches (instead of the controller). (More detail on latch structures can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,158,421 and 7,206,230.)
  • the system can store the currently accumulated XOR pages into SLC.
  • the risk of data loss due to a power cycle is reduced, as now data loss can occur only if there is a power cycle and there is a NAND failure in the current set of 8 word-lines that are programmed.
  • the process is part of the post-write read operation that is part of the programming process, and not the reading process (as done in a conventional use of an ECC). Consequently, it deals with actions taken from the time that the system programs the data until the time it acknowledges to the host that the data is reliably stored in the non-volatile memory.
  • the controller 1003 receives a set of multiple user data pages from the host, each of which is to be stored in the non-volatile memory 1011 .
  • the controller computes a transformation of the set of data pages into a check result that is maintains in the buffer 1007 .
  • the parity data does not include all of the information of the pages themselves, it is impossible to recreate the set of data pages from the check result alone.
  • the page can be XORed with the current corresponding parity data to update the parity information, with the also being transferred on to page buffer 1013 associated with the array.
  • corresponding parity data it is meant corresponding to whether the page is to be written as an upper page, lower page, middle page on a given word-line, and whether there are alternate word-line parity pages and so on.
  • the pages of data are then written from the buffer 1013 into the assigned block 1017 of the memory 1011 .
  • the controller will not maintain all of the pages of data, typically discarding them after they verify as written or possibly after transferring over to the memory, depending on the specific embodiment. In any case, due to the limited amount of RAM, it is standard for the controller will have discarded at least some of the data pages by the time a block's worth data has been written in.
  • the post-write read is usually done at the block level after a block, or several blocks, has been written. Again, it should be noted that in the exemplary embodiments that the read of the EPWR process is not in response to the controller receiving a read request from the host, but is rather a part of the program sequence as executed by the controller that is included in the autonomous process.
  • the system reads back at least some of the data pages that were written correctly from the non-volatile memory into the controller and re-creates the data page (or pages) that was not written correctly.
  • the pages read will depend on which (correctly written) pages are needed for the reconstruction. For example, if the data check page were the sort of parity page described above, where the set of pages are XORed together and have only that capacity for recovery of a single page, the all of the pages except for the bad page will be used, so that all of these (that have been discarded) will be read back. It should be noted that when a page is “correctly written”, this does not necessarily imply that it is without error, but, rather, that the amount of error is within the correction capabilities of the ECC with which is was encoded.
  • FIG. 13 looks at the process for writing in a block of data when, say, storing a stream of host data.
  • the programming operation, or the current portion of a programming operation, 1100 begins at 1101 with the controller receiving a first page of data from the host. This could be the first page of a set of data or picking up the first of a block (or other unit for which EPWR operations are done) at some point in a stream of data.
  • a page of parity data is generated as a function of the first page of data at 1105 and buffered on the controller.
  • the first page of data is sent across the bus structure to the memory, where is stored in the page buffer associated with the array and the subsequently written into the array 1103 .
  • the parity data can be generated, before, after, or while the page is transferred to the memory and programmed into the array.
  • the parity data is written into buffer memory, whether in the controller or, alternately, on the memory, so that it can be updated to any value as the subsequent pages are incorporate, as opposed to flash memory that can only be further programmed to higher states unless that whole of a block is erased.
  • the memory continues ( 1119 ) on with any further data in the next selected block. If, instead, a problem is found, the data recovery operation 1150 is performed. Any pages needed for the reconstruction are read back from the flash array at 1151 , except for any that may have not been discarded and are already be in the controller. The data for the bad pages are then reconstructed at 1153 , after which the block can be rewritten into a new location at 1155 . The recovery can then continue on with the other measures used after a bad EPWR result, such as described in US patent publication numbers 2011/0099418 A1, 2011/0099460 A1, and 2011/0096601 A1; U.S. provisional application No.
  • the post-write verify of the EPWR is done only after finishing the write of all pages of the block, but without the need to store an excessive amount of data on the controller. This can be done as the parity code is gradually computed while pages are being written into the flash and discarded from controller memory.
  • the exemplary embodiment uses volatile memory for the parity code as it is updated page by page as the data comes in, which is not available in flash memory.

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
  • Quality & Reliability (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Read Only Memory (AREA)

Abstract

The recovery of data during programming, such as in the case of a broken word-line, is considered. The arrangement described assumes that k pages may be corrupted when the system finishes programming a block. Then these corrupted pages can be recovered using an erasure code. In order to recover any k pages, the system will compute and temporarily store k parity pages in the controller. These k parity pages may be computed on-the-fly as the data pages are received from the host. After programming the block if a problem is detected in a post-write read, and data in up to k pages is corrupt on some bad word-lines, then the missing data is recovered using the k parity pages that are stored in the controller and using the other non-corrupted pages that are read from the block of the memory array and decoded.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/193,083, entitled “Non-Volatile Memory and Method with Accelerated Post-Write Read Using Combined Verification of Multiple Pages” by Eran Sharon, filed Jul. 28, 2013, and to provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 61/512,749, entitled “Post-Write Read in Non-Volatile Memories Using Comparison of Data As Written in Binary and Multi-State Formats” by Eran Sharon and Idan Alrod, filed Jul. 28, 2013.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to semiconductor memory circuits such as electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) and flash EEPROM, and specifically to the recovery of data of defective word-lines in such memory circuits.
Solid-state memory capable of nonvolatile storage of charge, particularly in the form of EEPROM and flash EEPROM packaged as a small form factor card, has recently become the storage of choice in a variety of mobile and handheld devices, notably information appliances and consumer electronics products. Unlike RAM (random access memory) that is also solid-state memory, flash memory is non-volatile, and retaining its stored data even after power is turned off. Also, unlike ROM (read only memory), flash memory is rewritable similar to a disk storage device. In spite of the higher cost, flash memory is increasingly being used in mass storage applications. Conventional mass storage, based on rotating magnetic medium such as hard drives and floppy disks, is unsuitable for the mobile and handheld environment. This is because disk drives tend to be bulky, are prone to mechanical failure and have high latency and high power requirements. These undesirable attributes make disk-based storage impractical in most mobile and portable applications. On the other hand, flash memory, both embedded and in the form of a removable card are ideally suited in the mobile and handheld environment because of its small size, low power consumption, high speed and high reliability features.
Flash EEPROM is similar to EEPROM (electrically erasable and programmable read-only memory) in that it is a non-volatile memory that can be erased and have new data written or “programmed” into their memory cells. Both utilize a floating (unconnected) conductive gate, in a field effect transistor structure, positioned over a channel region in a semiconductor substrate, between source and drain regions. A control gate is then provided over the floating gate. The threshold voltage characteristic of the transistor is controlled by the amount of charge that is retained on the floating gate. That is, for a given level of charge on the floating gate, there is a corresponding voltage (threshold) that must be applied to the control gate before the transistor is turned “on” to permit conduction between its source and drain regions. In particular, flash memory such as Flash EEPROM allows entire blocks of memory cells to be erased at the same time.
The floating gate can hold a range of charges and therefore can be programmed to any threshold voltage level within a threshold voltage window. The size of the threshold voltage window is delimited by the minimum and maximum threshold levels of the device, which in turn correspond to the range of the charges that can be programmed onto the floating gate. The threshold window generally depends on the memory device's characteristics, operating conditions and history. Each distinct, resolvable threshold voltage level range within the window may, in principle, be used to designate a definite memory state of the cell.
It is common in current commercial products for each storage element of a flash EEPROM array to store a single bit of data by operating in a binary mode, where two ranges of threshold levels of the storage element transistors are defined as storage levels. The threshold levels of transistors correspond to ranges of charge levels stored on their storage elements. In addition to shrinking the size of the memory arrays, the trend is to further increase the density of data storage of such memory arrays by storing more than one bit of data in each storage element transistor. This is accomplished by defining more than two threshold levels as storage states for each storage element transistor, four such states (2 bits of data per storage element) now being included in commercial products. More storage states, such as 16 states per storage element, are also being implemented. Each storage element memory transistor has a certain total range (window) of threshold voltages in which it may practically be operated, and that range is divided into the number of states defined for it plus margins between the states to allow for them to be clearly differentiated from one another. Obviously, the more bits a memory cell is configured to store, the smaller is the margin of error it has to operate in.
The transistor serving as a memory cell is typically programmed to a “programmed” state by one of two mechanisms. In “hot electron injection,” a high voltage applied to the drain accelerates electrons across the substrate channel region. At the same time a high voltage applied to the control gate pulls the hot electrons through a thin gate dielectric onto the floating gate. In “tunneling injection,” a high voltage is applied to the control gate relative to the substrate. In this way, electrons are pulled from the substrate to the intervening floating gate. While the term “program” has been used historically to describe writing to a memory by injecting electrons to an initially erased charge storage unit of the memory cell so as to alter the memory state, it has now been used interchangeable with more common Willis such as “write” or “record.”
The memory device may be erased by a number of mechanisms. For EEPROM, a memory cell is electrically erasable, by applying a high voltage to the substrate relative to the control gate so as to induce electrons in the floating gate to tunnel through a thin oxide to the substrate channel region (i.e., Fowler-Nordheim tunneling.) Typically, the EEPROM is erasable byte by byte. For flash EEPROM, the memory is electrically erasable either all at once or one or more minimum erasable blocks at a time, where a minimum erasable block may consist of one or more sectors and each sector may store 512 bytes or more of data.
The memory device typically comprises one or more memory chips that may be mounted on a card. Each memory chip comprises an array of memory cells supported by peripheral circuits such as decoders and erase, write and read circuits. The more sophisticated memory devices also come with a controller that performs intelligent and higher level memory operations and interfacing.
There are many commercially successful non-volatile solid-state memory devices being used today. These memory devices may be flash EEPROM or may employ other types of nonvolatile memory cells. Examples of flash memory and systems and methods of manufacturing them are given in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,070,032, 5,095,344, 5,315,541, 5,343,063, and 5,661,053, 5,313,421 and 6,222,762. In particular, flash memory devices with NAND string structures are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,570,315, 5,903,495, 6,046,935. Also nonvolatile memory devices are also manufactured from memory cells with a dielectric layer for storing charge. Instead of the conductive floating gate elements described earlier, a dielectric layer is used. Such memory devices utilizing dielectric storage element have been described by Eitan et al., “NROM: A Novel Localized Trapping, 2-Bit Nonvolatile Memory Cell,” IEEE Electron Device Letters, vol. 21, no. 11, November 2000, pp. 543-545. An ONO dielectric layer extends across the channel between source and drain diffusions. The charge for one data bit is localized in the dielectric layer adjacent to the drain, and the charge for the other data bit is localized in the dielectric layer adjacent to the source. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,768,192 and 6,011,725 disclose a nonvolatile memory cell having a trapping dielectric sandwiched between two silicon dioxide layers. Multi-state data storage is implemented by separately reading the binary states of the spatially separated charge storage regions within the dielectric.
In order to improve read and program performance, multiple charge storage elements or memory transistors in an array are read or programmed in parallel. Thus, a “page” of memory elements are read or programmed together. In existing memory architectures, a row typically contains several interleaved pages or it may constitute one page. All memory elements of a page will be read or programmed together.
Errors in Written Data
In the types of memory systems described herein, as well as in others, including magnetic disc storage systems, the integrity of the data being stored is maintained by use of an error correction technique. Most commonly, an error correction code (ECC) is calculated for each sector or other unit of data that is being stored at one time, and that ECC is stored along with the data. The ECC is most commonly stored together with a unit group of user data from which the ECC has been calculated. The unit group of user data may be a sector or a multi-sector page. When this data is read from the memory, the BCC is used to determine the integrity of the user data being read. Erroneous bits of data within the unit group of data can often be corrected by use of the ECC.
The trend is to reduce the size of the memory systems in order to be able to put more memory cells in the system and to make the system as small as possible to fit in smaller host devices. Memory capacity is increased by a combination of higher integration of circuits and configuring each memory cell to store more bits of data. Both techniques require the memory to operate with increasing tighter margin of error. This in turn places more demand on the ECC to correct errors.
The ECC can be designed to correct a predetermined number of error bits. The more bits it has to correct, the more complex and computationally intensive will the ECC be. For quality assurance, conventional ECC is designed based on the expected worst-case cell error rate at the end of life of the memory device. Thus, they have to correct a maximum number of error bits up to the far tail end of a statistical population of error rate.
As the flash memory ages, its error rate increases rapidly near the end of life of the device. Thus a powerful. ECC designed for the worst-case will only be called to apply its full capacity at the end of life of the memory device.
Using ECC to correct a worst-case number of error bits will consume a great amount processing time. The more bits it has to correct, the more computational time is required. The memory performance will be degraded. Additional dedicated hardware may be implemented to perform the ECC in a reasonable amount of time. Such dedicated hardware can take up a considerable amount of space on the controller ASIC chip. Moreover, for most of the life time of the device, the ECC is only marginally utilized, resulting in its large overheads being wasted and realizing no real benefits.
Consequently, defects often occur in such memory systems, both as part of the manufacturing process as well over the operating life of the device. One of the sources of such defects are the word-lines of such memory arrays, due both to word-line leakage (to another work-line or to the substrate) and to broken word-lines. These word-line related problems typically become more and more acute as device sizes scale down. Some word-line to word-line leakage does not manifest itself when the device is fresh, but only results in a failure after the stress of a number of program-erase cycles. This leakage will cause the faulty word-line to fail to program and corresponding data will be corrupted. A broken word-line will have a high resistive connection, as a result of which the cells on far end of the break will see a voltage drop during program and verify operations. As a result, the threshold voltage distribution for the broken word-line will show un-distinguishable states. Consequently, both of these sorts of defects can be detrimental to memory operation if not detected and lead to the loss of data that is to be written on such word lines.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
According to a first set of aspects, a memory of operating a memory system including an array of flash memory cells formed along a plurality of word lines each capable of storing one or more pages of data is presented. The method includes receiving a first data page, storing the received first data page in a first buffer, and writing the first data page from the first buffer into a word line of the flash memory. A first page of parity data is generated for the received first page of data and stored in a second buffer. Subsequent to receiving the first data page, one or more additional pages of data are received sequentially, and for each of additional received page of data, the preceding page of received data in the first buffer is replaced with the succeeding page of data, the succeeding page of data is written from the first buffer into a corresponding word line of the flash memory, and the page of parity data stored in the second buffer is updated as a function of previously stored parity data and the page. The method subsequently determines whether the first data page and the additional pages of data were written correctly, and, in response to determining that one of the data pages is written incorrectly, determines the correct data for the incorrectly written page based upon the page of parity data and others of the pages as read from the array.
According to other aspects, a method of operating a memory system is presented, where the memory system includes a memory circuit, the memory circuit having an array of non-volatile memory cells formed along a plurality of word lines each capable of storing one or more pages of data, and a controller circuit controlling the transfer of data between the memory system and a host and managing the storage of data on the memory circuit. The method includes performing a write operation of a plurality of pages of data into the memory array. The write operation includes receiving from the host the plurality of pages at the controller circuit; computing a data check result from the plurality of pages, transferring the plurality of pages from the controller circuit to the memory circuit, and writing the plurality of pages into array. The controller discards one or more of the pages subsequent to being written. The data check result is a many to one transformation such that plurality of data pages cannot be reconstructed based solely upon the data check result. The write operation also includes, subsequent to writing the plurality of pages into the array, performing a post-write verify operation to determine whether the plurality of pages were correctly written, wherein the post-write verify operation is performed as part of the write operation independently of a separate host command for performing it. In response to determining that one of the plurality of pages is not written correctly, and the incorrectly written page being one of the pages discarded by the controller, the method further includes reading one or more of the other data pages from the memory array and reconstructing the first page from the data check result and the other data pages read from the memory array.
Various aspects, advantages, features and embodiments of the present invention are included in the following description of exemplary examples thereof, which description should be taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. All patents, patent applications, articles, other publications, documents and things referenced herein are hereby incorporated herein by this reference in their entirety for all purposes. To the extent of any inconsistency or conflict in the definition or use of terms between any of the incorporated publications, documents or things and the present application, those of the present application shall prevail.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 illustrates a host in communication with a memory device in which the features of the present invention are embodied.
FIG. 2 illustrates schematically a non-volatile memory cell.
FIG. 3 illustrates an example of an NOR array of memory cells.
FIG. 4 illustrates a page of memory cells, organized for example in the NAND configuration, being sensed or programmed in parallel.
FIG. 5A illustrates in more detail the sense modules shown in FIG. 1 to contain a bank of p sense modules across an array of memory cells.
FIG. 5B illustrates a sense module including a sense amplifier.
FIG. 6 illustrates schematically an example of a memory array organized in erasable blocks.
FIG. 7 illustrates a binary memory having a population of cells with each cell being in one of two possible states.
FIG. 8 illustrates a multi-state memory having a population of cells with each cell being in one of eight possible states.
FIG. 9 illustrates schematically a data page containing an ECC field.
FIG. 10A shows a normal distribution of error rate, with the percentage of the population in various ranges of standard deviations a.
FIG. 10B illustrate the distribution of FIG. 10A in a table format.
FIG. 11 illustrates an example of protecting a block's worth of memory data with 64 word-lines against at most k corrupt pages.
FIG. 12 is a simplified diagram of a memory system in which various aspects of the memory can be implemented.
FIG. 13 is a flow chart of an exemplary embodiment illustrating the programming of a block of data and recovering the data from a defective word-line.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION Memory System
FIG. 1 illustrates a host in communication with a memory device in which the features of the present invention are embodied. The host 80 typically sends data to be stored at the memory device 90 or retrieves data by reading the memory device 90. The memory device 90 includes one or more memory chip 100 managed by a controller 102. The memory chip 100 includes a memory array 200 of memory cells with each cell capable of being configured as a multi-level cell (“MLC”) for storing multiple bits of data. The memory chip also includes peripheral circuits such as sense modules 480, data latches 430 and I/O circuits 440. An on-chip control circuitry 110 controls low-level memory operations of each chip. The control circuitry 110 is an on-chip controller that cooperates with the peripheral circuits to perform memory operations on the memory array 200. The control circuitry 110 typically includes a state machine 112 to provide chip level control of memory operations.
In many implementations, the host 80 communicates and interacts with the memory chip 100 via the controller 102. The controller 102 co-operates with the memory chip and controls and manages higher level memory operations. For example, in a host write, the host 10 sends data to be written to the memory array 100 in logical sectors allocated from a file system of the host's operating system. A memory block management system implemented in the controller stages the sectors and maps and stores them to the physical structure of the memory array.
A preferred block management system is disclosed in United States Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0172180 A1, published on Jul. 8, 2010, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
A firmware 60 provides codes to implement the functions of the controller 102. An error correction code (“ECC”) processor 62 processes ECC during operations of the memory device. In another embodiment, the controller 102 is implemented within the host.
Physical Memory Structure
FIG. 2 illustrates schematically a non-volatile memory cell. The memory cell 10 can be implemented by a field-effect transistor having a charge storage unit 20, such as a floating gate or a dielectric layer. The memory cell 10 also includes a source 14, a drain 16, and a control gate 30.
There are many commercially successful non-volatile solid-state memory devices being used today. These memory devices may employ different types of memory cells, each type having one or more charge storage element. Typical non-volatile memory cells include EEPROM and flash EEPROM. Examples of EEPROM cells and methods of manufacturing them are given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,595,924. Examples of flash EEPROM cells, their uses in memory systems and methods of manufacturing them are given in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,070,032, 5,095,344, 5,315,541, 5,343,063, 5,661,053, 5,313,421 and 6,222,762. In particular, examples of memory devices with NAND cell structures are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,570,315, 5,903,495, 6,046,935. Also, examples of memory devices utilizing dielectric storage element have been described by Eitan et al., “NROM: A Novel Localized Trapping, 2-Bit Nonvolatile Memory Cell,” IEEE Electron Device Letters, vol. 21, no. 11, November 2000, pp. 543-545, and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,768,192 and 6,011,725.
In practice, the memory state of a cell is usually read by sensing the conduction current across the source and drain electrodes of the cell when a reference voltage is applied to the control gate. Thus, for each given charge on the floating gate of a cell, a corresponding conduction current with respect to a fixed reference control gate voltage may be detected. Conversely, a threshold voltage is defined as the voltage on the control gate that will just turn on the cell with the given charge. Similarly, the range of charge programmable onto the floating gate defines a corresponding threshold voltage window or a corresponding conduction current window.
Alternatively, instead of detecting the conduction current among a partitioned current window, it is possible to set the threshold voltage for a given memory state under test at the control gate and detect if the conduction current is lower or higher than a threshold current. In one implementation the detection of the conduction current relative to a threshold current is accomplished by examining the rate the conduction current is discharging through the capacitance of the bit line or a known capacitor.
As can be seen from the description above, the more states a memory cell is made to store, the more finely divided is its threshold window. For example, a memory device may have memory cells having a threshold window that ranges from −1.5V to 5V. This provides a maximum width of 6.5V. If the memory cell is to store 16 states, each state may occupy from 200 mV to 300 mV in the threshold window. This will require higher precision in programming and reading operations in order to be able to achieve the required resolution.
The memory array 200 is typically organized as a two-dimensional array of memory cells arranged in rows and columns and addressable by word lines and bit lines. The array can be formed according to an NOR type or an NAND type architecture.
FIG. 3 illustrates an example of an NOR array of memory cells. In the memory array 200, each row of memory cells are connected by their sources 14 and drains 16 in a daisy-chain manner. This design is sometimes referred to as a virtual ground design. The cells 10 in a row have their control gates 30 connected to a word line, such as word line 42. The cells in a column have their sources and drains respectively connected to selected bit lines, such as bit lines 34 and 36.
FIG. 4 illustrates a page of memory cells, organized for example in the NAND configuration, being sensed or programmed in parallel. FIG. 4 essentially shows a bank of NAND strings 50 in the memory array 200. A NAND string 50 comprises of a series of memory transistors (e.g., 4, 8, 16 or higher) daisy-chained by their sources and drains. A pair of select transistors S1, S2 controls the memory transistors chain's connection to the external via the NAND string's source terminal and drain terminal respectively. In a memory array, when the source select transistor S1 is turned on, the source terminal is coupled to a source line 34. Similarly, when the drain select transistor S2 is turned on, the drain terminal of the NAND string is coupled to a bit line 36 of the memory array. Each memory transistor 10 in the chain acts as a memory cell. It has a charge storage element 20 to store a given amount of charge so as to represent an intended memory state. A control gate of each memory transistor allows control over read and write operations. The control gates of corresponding memory transistors of a row of NAND string are all connected to the same word line (such as WL0, WL1, . . . ) Similarly, a control gate of each of the select transistors S1, S2 (accessed via select lines SGS and SGD respectively) provides control access to the NAND string via its source the final and drain terminal respectively.
When an addressed memory transistor 10 within an NAND string is read or is verified during programming, its control gate is supplied with an appropriate voltage via a common word line. At the same time, the rest of the non-addressed memory transistors in the NAND string 50 are fully turned on by application of sufficient voltage on their control gates. In this way, a conductive path is effective created from the source of the individual memory transistor to the source terminal of the NAND string and likewise for the drain of the individual memory transistor to the drain terminal of the cell. Memory devices with such NAND string structures are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,570,315, 5,903,495, 6,046,935.
A “page” such as the page 70, is a group of memory cells enabled to be sensed or programmed in parallel. This is accomplished by a corresponding page of sense amplifiers. For example, the page 70 is along a row and is sensed by a sensing voltage applied to the control gates of the cells of the page connected in common to the word line WL3. Along each column, each cell such as cell 10 is accessible by a sense amplifier via a bit line 36. The page referred to above is a physical page memory cells or sense amplifiers. Depending on context, in the case where each cell is storing.
Sensing Circuits and Techniques
FIG. 5A illustrates in more detail the sense modules shown in FIG. 1 to contain a bank of p sense modules across an array of memory cells. The entire bank of p sense modules 480 operating in parallel allows a group (or physical page) of p cells 10 along a row to be read or programmed in parallel. Essentially, sense module 1 will sense a current I1 in cell 1, sense module 2 will sense a current I2 in cell 2, . . . , sense module p will sense a current Ip in cell p, etc. The total cell current iTOT for the page flowing out of the source line 34 into an aggregate node CLSRC and from there to ground will be a summation of all the currents in the p cells.
In conventional memory architecture, a row of memory cells with a common word line forms two or more pages, where the memory cells in a page are read and programmed in parallel. In the case of a row with two pages, one page is accessed by even bit lines and the other page is accessed by odd bit lines. A physical page of sensing circuits is coupled to either the even bit lines or to the odd bit lines at any one time.
In currently produced chips, the physical page may be 64 k or larger. In the preferred embodiment, the group is a run of the entire row of cells. This is the so-called “all bit-line” architecture in which the page is constituted from a row of contiguous memory cells coupled respectively to contiguous bit lines.
FIG. 5B illustrates a sense module including a sense amplifier. The sense amplifier 490 detects the conduction current of a cell is above or below a reference level. The sensed results are latches in a corresponding set of latches 430 (see FIG. 1).
Erase Blocks
One important difference between flash memory and other type of memory is that a cell must be programmed from the erased state. That is the floating gate must first be emptied of charge. Programming then adds a desired amount of charge back to the floating gate. It does not support removing a portion of the charge from the floating to go from a more programmed state to a lesser one. This means that update data cannot overwrite existing one and must be written to a previous unwritten location.
Furthermore erasing is to empty all the charges from the floating gate and generally takes appreciably time. For that reason, it will be cumbersome and very slow to erase cell by cell or even page by page. In practice, the array of memory cells is divided into a large number of blocks of memory cells. As is common for flash EEPROM systems, the block is the unit of erase. That is, each block contains the minimum number of memory cells that are erased together.
FIG. 6 illustrates schematically an example of a memory array organized in erasable blocks. Programming of charge storage memory devices can only result in adding more charge to its charge storage elements. Therefore, prior to a program operation, existing charge in charge storage element of a memory cell must be removed (or erased). A non-volatile memory such as EEPROM is referred to as a “Flash” EEPROM when an entire array of cells 200, or significant groups of cells of the array, is electrically erased together (i.e., in a flash). Once erased, the group of cells can then be reprogrammed. The group of cells erasable together may consist of one or more addressable erase unit 300. The erase unit or block 300 typically stores one or more pages of data, the page being a minimum unit of programming and reading, although more than one page may be programmed or read in a single operation. Each page typically stores one or more sectors of data, the size of the sector being defined by the host system. An example is a sector of 512 bytes of user data, following a standard established with magnetic disk drives, plus some number of bytes of overhead information about the user data and/or the block in with it is stored.
In the example shown in FIG. 6, individual memory cells in the memory array 200 are accessible by word lines 42 such as WL0-WLy and bit lines 36 such as BL0-BLx. The memory is organized into erase blocks, such as erase blocks 0, 1, . . . m. Referring also to FIGS. 5A and 5B, if the NAND string 50 contains 16 memory cells, then the first bank of NAND strings in the array will be accessible by select lines 44 and word lines 42 such as WL0 to WL15. The erase block 0 is organized to have all the memory cells of the first bank of NAND strings erased together. In another memory architecture, more than one bank of NAND strings may be erased together.
Examples of Binary (SLC) and Multi-State (MLC) Memory Partitioning
As described earlier, an example of nonvolatile memory is formed from an array of field-effect transistors, each having a charge storage layer between its channel region and its control gate. The charge storage layer or unit can store a range of charges, giving rise to a range of threshold voltages for each field-effect transistor. The range of possible threshold voltages spans a threshold window. When the threshold window is partitioned into multiple sub-ranges or zones of threshold voltages, each resolvable zone is used to represent a different memory states for a memory cell. The multiple memory states can be coded by one or more binary bits.
FIG. 7 illustrates a binary memory having a population of cells with each cell being in one of two possible states. Each memory cell has its threshold window partitioned by a single demarcation level into two distinct zones. As shown in FIG. 7(0), during read, a read demarcation level rV1, between a lower zone and an upper zone, is used to determine to which zone the threshold level of the cell lies. The cell is in an “erased” state if its threshold is located in the lower zone and is in a “programmed” state if its threshold is located in the upper zone. FIG. 7(1) illustrates the memory initially has all its cells in the “erased” state. FIG. 7(2) illustrates some of cells being programmed to the “programmed” state. A 1-bit or binary code is used to code the memory states. For example, the bit value “1” represents the “erased” state and “0” represents the “programmed” state. Typically programming is performed by application of one or more programming voltage pulse. After each pulse, the cell is sensed to verify if the threshold has moved beyond a verify demarcation level vV1. A memory with such memory cell partitioning is referred to as “binary” memory or Single-level Cell (“SLC”) memory. It will be seen that a binary or SLC memory operates with a wide margin of error as the entire threshold window is only occupied by two zones.
FIG. 8 illustrates a multi-state memory having a population of cells with each cell being in one of eight possible states. Each memory cell has its threshold window partitioned by at least seven demarcation levels into eight distinct zones. As shown in FIG. 8(0), during read, read demarcation levels rV1 to rV7 are used to determine to which zone the threshold level of the cell lies. The cell is in an “erased” state if its threshold is located in the lowest zone and is in one of multiple “programmed” states if its threshold is located in the upper zones. FIG. 8(1) illustrates the memory initially has all its cells in the “erased” state. FIG. 8(2) illustrates some of cells being programmed to the “programmed” state. A 3-bit code having lower, middle and upper bits can be used to represent each of the eight memory states. For example, the “0”, “1”, “2”, “3”, “4”, “5”, “6” and “7” states are respectively represented by “111”, “011”, “001”, “101”, “100”, “000”, “010” and “110”. Typically programming is performed by application of one or more programming voltage pulses. After each pulse, the cell is sensed to verify if the threshold has moved beyond a reference which is one of verify demarcation levels vV1 to vV7. A memory with such memory cell partitioning is referred to as “multi-state” memory or Multi-level Cell (“MLC”) memory.
Similarly, a memory storing 4-bit code will have lower, first middle, second middle and upper bits, representing each of the sixteen states. The threshold window will be demarcated by at least 15 demarcation levels into sixteen distinct zones.
As the memory's finite threshold window is partitioned into more regions, the resolution for programming and reading will necessarily become finer. Thus, a multi-state or MLC memory necessarily operates with a narrower margin of error compared to that of a memory with less partitioned zones. In other words, the error rate increases with the number of bits stored in each cell. In general, error rate increases with the number of partitioned zones in the threshold window.
Correction by Error Correction Code (“ECC”)
Flash memory is prone to errors. To ensure error-free data, an error correction code (“ECC”) is implemented to correct errors.
FIG. 9 illustrates schematically a data page containing an ECC field. As described in connection with FIG. 4 and FIG. 6A, a physical page of memory cells is programmed and read in parallel by virtue of a corresponding page of sense modules operating in parallel. When each memory cell stores multiple bits of data, there will be multiple data pages associated with each physical page. The data page 70′ comprises a user portion 72′ and a system portion 74′. The user portion 72′ is for storage of user data. The system portion 74′ is generally used by the memory system for storage of system data. Included in the system data is an ECC. The ECC is computed for the data page. Typically, the ECC is computed by the ECC processor 62 in the controller 102 (see FIG. 1.)
As data is received from a host, a page of data is staged in the controller 102 and its ECC 76′ is computed by the ECC processor 62. The data page incorporating the ECC is then written to the memory array 200. Typically, when the data page is read, the data page is latched in the data latches 430 and shifted out of the I/O circuits 440 to the controller 102. At the controller 102, the data page's existing ECC is compared to a second version of the ECC computed on the read data. The ECC typically includes an error detection code (“EDC”) for rapid detection of any error in the data page. If the EDC indicates the existence of any error in the read data page, the ECC is invoked to correct erroneous bits in the read data page.
The ECC can be designed to correct any number of error bits. The more bits it has to correct, the more complex and computationally intensive will the ECC be. For quality assurance, conventional ECC is designed based on the expected worst case cell error rate (“CER”) at the end of life (“EOL”) of the memory device. Thus, they have to correct a maximum number of error bits up to the far tail end of a statistical error population.
FIG. 10A shows a normal distribution of error rate with the percentage of the population in various ranges of standard deviations σ. For example, only 2.1% of the population lies within the range from 2σ to 3σ. Only 0.1% of the population lies within the range from 3σ to 4σ.
FIG. 10B illustrate the distribution of FIG. 10A in a table format. It can be seen that only E-09 or one in one billion of the population lies beyond 6σ. The last column in the table shows the estimated error rates for an example memory device in the worst case. For example, 5% of the population will have 1 error bit, 0.135% of the population will have 4 error bits and 1 in 1 billion of the population will have 42 error bits.
Consider a sample of 125 memory cards. Each card has a capacity of 16 GB with data pages of 2 KB each. This amounts to a population of one billion pages of 2 KB each. To ensure not a single page of the sample of 125 memory cards will have an error at the end of life of the card, an ECC capable of correcting up to 42 bits will be needed.
More detail and further development of the preceding sections can be found in US patent publications 2011/0099418 A1, 2011/0099460 A1, and 2011/0096601 A1
Method for Data Recovery in Case of Bad Word Line Detection During Programming
This section looks at the recovery of data during programming, such as in the case of a broken word-line. As device scales decrease, and the length of word lines increase, the occurrence of broken word-lines, leaking word lines and other scale related defects also likely to become more common. The problem of broken and leaking word-lines are discussed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/833,167 filed on Jul. 9, 2010, Ser. No. 13/101,765 filed on May 5, 2011, Ser. No. 12/833,146 filed on Jul. 9, 2010, Ser. No. 13/016,732 filed Jan. 28, 2011, where the first two of these present methods for detecting broken word-lines and the second two present methods for the detection of leaky word-lines. Another approach by which broken word-line failure could be detected is to use a smart verify scheme, such as is described in US patent publications numbers US-2010-0091573-A1 and US-2010-0091568-A1, where the program voltage level is recorded when a certain number of bits pass the lower page program operation on each word-line. Yet another approach to detect this sort of failure is the “forbidden zone” read, where a read is performed to determine whether any cells have a threshold voltages in the region between the ranges allotted to data states (see, for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,012,835; 7,616,484; or 7,716,538). One set techniques for identifying broken word-lines and other defects that can manifest themselves during a write operation is known as Enhanced Post Write Read (EPWR).
In an enhanced post write read process, after the data is written (i.e., each of the cells have verified against its target value in the pulse-verify program cycle), it is read back and checked for accuracy. This is typically done at some point a block is written and is usually part of the program sequence, as opposed being executed in response to a command for this from the host. The “enhanced” part is that the process is enhance by techniques to reduce the amount of data to transfer between the host and controller, read less data, execute less frequently, or other accelerate the process. More detail on EPWR processes are presented in US patent publication numbers 2011/0099418 A1, 2011/0099460 A1, and 2011/0096601 A1; U.S. provisional application No. 61/495,053 filed on Jun. 9, 2011; and U.S. application a application Ser. No. 13/193,083, entitled “Non-Volatile Memory and Method with Accelerated Post-Write Read Using Combined Verification of Multiple Pages” by Eran Sharon, filed Jul. 28, 2013.
When programming NAND or other non-volatile memories, there is a problem of possible data loss due to various failure modes such as broken word-lines, word-line to word-line shorts, control gate shorts, and so on. This can especially be a problem when programming directly to multi-state (MLC), where the data is not maintained in, for example, a non-volatile binary cache until checked in a post-write verification. Although such failures can be detected through EPWR, these are typically done only after finishing programming of the entire block. However, if the system detects a bad word-line during EPWR, the data in this bad word-line is lost unless the system has its copy stored in binary non-volatile cache or elsewhere.
One solution for the problem of data loss in case of such failure during \programming is to store the entire block in the controller RAM until the system finish programming the block and checking its validity through EPWR. However, this solution requires a huge amount of controller RAM (typically 2 MB-4 MB), which is usually not acceptable due to high controller cost. Another solution is to perform the EPWR before finishing the programming of the block by, for example, performing it in pipeline: as the memory programs word-line n (WLn), read and verify the validity of WLn-k, for some k≧1, where k is the pipeline depth. This pipeline arrangement would significantly reduce the storage requirements as the system would need to store only k*m pages per die per plane in the controller, where m is the number of pages per word-line (m=2 in a 2-bit per cell arrangement, m=3 for 3 bits per cell). This has two problems: first, the number of pages that need to be stored in the controller may still be too high, especially for multi-die configuration. For example, in a 3-bit per cell arrangement, with 4 dies, 2 planes, and k=2, the number of pages that need to be stored in the controller is 4*3*2*2=48. Assuming 16 KB pages plus redundancy, this adds up to ˜800 MB-850 MB of RAM in the controller (depending on the amount of redundancy), which is still too much RAM in most systems. The second problem with this solution is that the system would perform the EPWR of a page before it finishes programming the entire block. This may result in miss-detection of certain failure modes in a word-line that do not occur during the programming of the word-line itself, but rather evolve only later when programming the other word-lines of the block. It is for this reason that EPWR is usually performed only after finishing programming of the entire block.
The solution for the problem of data loss in case of NAND failure during direct MLC programming that is described in this section has several advantages over the prior art solutions. First, it has a much smaller storage requirement in the controller: for example, needing ˜50 KB-100 KB, for 3-bits per cell with 4 die and a 2 planes configuration. Second, it allows performing the EPWR operation when programming of the entire block is finished, hence it is more robust as it avoids miss-detection of failures that evolve only after finishing programming the block.
The arrangement described in this section assumes that at most k pages may be corrupted when the system finishes programming a block. Then these corrupted pages can be recovered using an erasure code. In order to recover any k pages, the system will compute and temporarily store k parity pages in the controller. These k parity pages may be computed on-the-fly as the data pages are received from the host. Once programming of the block is finished, EPWR may be done in order to validate that the data is stored reliably. If no problem is detected during EPWR, then the parity pages in the controller may be discarded. In case a problem is detected, and data in at most k pages is corrupt on some bad word-lines, then the missing data is recovered using the k parity pages that are stored in the controller and using the other non-corrupted pages that are read from the block of the memory array and decoded. Once the recovery is complete the block can be reprogrammed and the temporary parity pages in the controller may be discarded upon successfully reprogramming.
One example of a code that can be used is a Reed-Solomon (RS) code (e.g a RS code over GF(28)). An example of protecting a 2-bit per cell (or “X2”) block with 64 word-lines against at most k corrupt pages is shown is illustrated schematically in FIG. 11. The top portion 901 of represents a set of, in this example, 128 pages of data. From these data pages is derived a data check result of k parity pages, represented at 903. The transformation of the data pages in 901 to the k parity pages is many-to-one mapping, so that the system could not recreate the set of data pages 901 from the check result alone due to the information lost in the mapping. The data pages are written into a block of flash memory, while the check data result of 903 will be kept in a buffer allowing it to be updated.
For example, the content of each column of symbols of 901 can be encoded using a Reed-Solomon (RS) code. In FIG. 11, this is represented for a span of 8 bits using RS code is taken over GF(28), the data of the RS code being mapped into the parity of the RS code. In addition to the discussion of the preceding sections, more detail on error correction code can be found in the following US patents, patent publications, and patent application numbers: 2009/0094482; U.S. Pat. No. 7,502,254; 2007/0268745; 2007/0283081; U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,310,347; 7,493,457; 7,426,623; 2007/0220197; 2007/0065119; 2007/0061502; 2007/0091677; 2007/0180346; 2008/0181000; 2007/0260808; 2005/0213393; U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,510,488; 7,058,818; 2008/0244338; 2008/0244367; 2008/0250300; and 2008/0104312.
If certain simplifying assumptions are made on the location of the corrupted pages, such as that they cannot happen at k random pages, but rather at consecutive pages, then the coding scheme may be simplified, such that a set of single parity-check codes can be used instead of an RS code. Such assumptions are reasonable, since the known NAND failure mechanisms such as broken word-lines, word-line to word-line shorts, control gate shorts, and so on affect a single word-line or two adjacent word-lines and hence corrupt two or four consecutive pages (assuming X2).
For example, assume that we only need to protect against a single problematic word-line (e.g. a broken word-line) in block, discussed for a 2-bit per cell (or X2) embodiment. The process can be illustrated with respect to FIG. 12, a simplified diagram of a memory system 1001. Examples of such memory system could be a memory card, an embedded system, an SSD drive, and so on, as discussed above. The system 1001 includes a controller circuit 1003 and one or more memory circuits such as shown at 1011. Both the controller and the memory circuit are simplified for the purposes of this discussion, with those elements not entering in being suppressed. Controller 1003 is shown to include the parity buffer 1007, with the other elements of the controller, including the assorted logic circuitry, ECC circuitry, other RAM and so on, lumped into 1005, where more detail on controllers can be found in the various references cited above. Although the parity buffer 1007 is here shown as a distinct element, various embodiment are possible, including a dedicated memory section or just using the general purpose RAM, the rest of which is lumped into 1005. The memory section is represented by the memory device 1001, where a single page buffer for writing data is shown at 1013 and a single block 1017 of array 1015 is explicitly labeled. More detail on memory circuits is given above and in the references cited above. The data content 901 is written into a block such as 1017 and the parity data 902 is maintained in the buffer 1007. The exemplary embodiment has parity data buffer 1007, but in other cases it could be stored (and computed) by the controller circuitry of the memory circuit.
Under the assumption of a single problematic word-line, the following simple scheme can be used: As the system programs the X2 block 1017, it accumulates in the parity buffer 1007 the XOR of all the lower pages so far, and the XOR of all the upper pages so far (two pages altogether). (Similarly, for an N-bit per MLC embodiment, it would be N pages, with only 1 page for a binary embodiment.) When the system gets to the last page in the block, it has two pages in the controller, one which is the XOR of all the lower pages (called “PXL” in the following) and the other which is the XOR of all the upper pages (“PXU”). When finished programming the data content 901 into the X2 block 1017, the system performs EPWR. If it detects a problem, which affects a single word-line, it can recover the missing data from the two XOR pages and all the other non-problematic word-lines: that is, the lower page of the messed up word-line can be recovered by XORing PXL with the lower pages of all the non-problematic word-lines (that are read from 1017 and decoded). Similarly, it can recover the upper page of the messed up word-line. After the data recovery, the system can reprogram the data 901 and (assuming the subsequent program is successful) can discard the temporary XOR pages (PXL and PXU) from 1007.
FIG. 12 only explicitly shows only a single die with a single plane (1011, 1015). More generally, note that the XOR pages (PXL&PXU) can be joined to all dies and all plains. For example in a 4 die and 2 planes per die configuration, PXL will be the XOR of all the lower pages of in all the 4 dies and 2 planes (i.e. XOR of lowers of 8 blocks). This in turn reduces the storage requirement from the controller as we will need only two pages (32 KB+ECC redundancy), regardless of the number of dies and planes per die.
Another variant that can reduce the amount of memory required in the controller, is to store the XOR pages (PXL&PXU) in the Flash latches instead of the controller. More specifically, if there are enough latches in the Flash, then the generation and storage of the XOR pages (PXL&PXU) during programming, may be done internally in the Flash latches (instead of the controller). (More detail on latch structures can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,158,421 and 7,206,230.)
This simple solution, based on single parity-check codes, can be generalized to deal with a higher number of corrupt consecutive pages. For example, assume that the system needs to protect against at most two adjacent problematic word-lines (this covers problems including broken word-lines, control gate-substrate short circuits, and word-line to word-line shorts). This will require temporarily storing four XOR pages (or, more generally 2N for an N-bit per cell MLC embodiment) in the controller—XOR of all lower pages of even word-lines, XOR of all lower pages of odd word-lines, XOR of all upper pages of even word-lines and XOR of all upper pages of odd word-lines.
As the exemplary embodiment maintains the parity data in volatile memory, power loss in the middle of the block programming, during EPWR, or before the system can manage to recover the data of the bad word-line, will result in losing the temporary parity pages in the controller, and hence will not allow data recovery in case one or more of the pages is corrupt. However, this sort of direct MLC programming may be used in a mode where the host allows for the discarding of an entire block in case of power failure, such as in case of power cycle. Hence, losing the temporary XOR pages during power failure is not an issue in these cases.
Even when direct MLC programming is to be used in other cases, where data loss of the block during power cycle is not allowed, then the techniques of this section may still be usefully employed. The reason is that having both a bad block and an ungraceful power loss during its programming is expected to be rare. So, overall the technique may already reduce the error rate to an acceptable level. Furthermore, it is possible to further reduce the probability of data loss in case that the programming of a block with a NAND failure issue was interrupted by a power cycle. This can be done by storing the temporary XOR pages into non-volatile memory, such as faster binary (or “SLC”) non-volatile memory, several times during the MLC programming. For example, once every programming of 8 word-lines, the system can store the currently accumulated XOR pages into SLC. In this case the risk of data loss due to a power cycle is reduced, as now data loss can occur only if there is a power cycle and there is a NAND failure in the current set of 8 word-lines that are programmed. Hence the probability of data loss is reduced by a factor of, for example, ˜8/86 (as 8 WLs out of total of, say, 86 word-lines are at risk). This comes at the expense of programming ceil(86/8)=11 SLC pages, which incur both a time penalty and an SLC cycling penalty.
For all of the variations described in this section, the process is part of the post-write read operation that is part of the programming process, and not the reading process (as done in a conventional use of an ECC). Consequently, it deals with actions taken from the time that the system programs the data until the time it acknowledges to the host that the data is reliably stored in the non-volatile memory. Referring back to FIG. 12, as the controller 1003 receives a set of multiple user data pages from the host, each of which is to be stored in the non-volatile memory 1011. The controller computes a transformation of the set of data pages into a check result that is maintains in the buffer 1007. As the parity data does not include all of the information of the pages themselves, it is impossible to recreate the set of data pages from the check result alone. For example, as described above, as the data pages are sequentially received from the host, the page can be XORed with the current corresponding parity data to update the parity information, with the also being transferred on to page buffer 1013 associated with the array. (Where by “corresponding parity data”, it is meant corresponding to whether the page is to be written as an upper page, lower page, middle page on a given word-line, and whether there are alternate word-line parity pages and so on.) The pages of data are then written from the buffer 1013 into the assigned block 1017 of the memory 1011.
The controller will not maintain all of the pages of data, typically discarding them after they verify as written or possibly after transferring over to the memory, depending on the specific embodiment. In any case, due to the limited amount of RAM, it is standard for the controller will have discarded at least some of the data pages by the time a block's worth data has been written in. The post-write read is usually done at the block level after a block, or several blocks, has been written. Again, it should be noted that in the exemplary embodiments that the read of the EPWR process is not in response to the controller receiving a read request from the host, but is rather a part of the program sequence as executed by the controller that is included in the autonomous process. If the EPWR operation finds that any of the pages were not written correctly, and was already discarded from the controller, the system reads back at least some of the data pages that were written correctly from the non-volatile memory into the controller and re-creates the data page (or pages) that was not written correctly. The pages read will depend on which (correctly written) pages are needed for the reconstruction. For example, if the data check page were the sort of parity page described above, where the set of pages are XORed together and have only that capacity for recovery of a single page, the all of the pages except for the bad page will be used, so that all of these (that have been discarded) will be read back. It should be noted that when a page is “correctly written”, this does not necessarily imply that it is without error, but, rather, that the amount of error is within the correction capabilities of the ECC with which is was encoded.
Many of these features are illustrated with respect to FIG. 13, which looks at the process for writing in a block of data when, say, storing a stream of host data. The programming operation, or the current portion of a programming operation, 1100 begins at 1101 with the controller receiving a first page of data from the host. This could be the first page of a set of data or picking up the first of a block (or other unit for which EPWR operations are done) at some point in a stream of data. Once on the controller, a page of parity data is generated as a function of the first page of data at 1105 and buffered on the controller. The first page of data is sent across the bus structure to the memory, where is stored in the page buffer associated with the array and the subsequently written into the array 1103. With respect to the order of 1103 and 1105, these can be done in either order or concurrently, based on the implementation. As long as controller is holding a copy of the page, the parity data can be generated, before, after, or while the page is transferred to the memory and programmed into the array.
Note that in the exemplary embodiment the parity data is written into buffer memory, whether in the controller or, alternately, on the memory, so that it can be updated to any value as the subsequent pages are incorporate, as opposed to flash memory that can only be further programmed to higher states unless that whole of a block is erased.
As each subsequent page from the host comes in to the controller (1107), it is buffered on the controller, sent to the memory where it replaces the previous page in the page buffer and is written into the memory (1109), and the page of parity data is updated (1111) as a function of the previously computed parity date and the current page. As space is needed, pages that have already been written can be discarded. If there are more pages for the block (or other group for which the EPWR process will be executed), the flow loops back at 1117. If the block is complete (or there is no further data to write), the ERWR process is then executed at 1115. Again, it should be noted that this is all part of the program process; and, further, is only for a specific block, so that, more generally, this flow is part of a larger loop over multiple block for a stream of data.
At 1117, if the EPWR finds no problems, the memory continues (1119) on with any further data in the next selected block. If, instead, a problem is found, the data recovery operation 1150 is performed. Any pages needed for the reconstruction are read back from the flash array at 1151, except for any that may have not been discarded and are already be in the controller. The data for the bad pages are then reconstructed at 1153, after which the block can be rewritten into a new location at 1155. The recovery can then continue on with the other measures used after a bad EPWR result, such as described in US patent publication numbers 2011/0099418 A1, 2011/0099460 A1, and 2011/0096601 A1; U.S. provisional application No. 61/495,053 filed on Jun. 9, 2011; and U.S. application Ser. No. 13/193,083, entitled “Non-Volatile Memory and Method with Accelerated Post-Write Read Using Combined Verification of Multiple Pages” by Eran Sharon, filed Jul. 28, 2013. For example, the block with the bad word-line is typically marked as defective in the controller's data management structures, so that it is not subsequently used.
Note that in the exemplary embodiment, the post-write verify of the EPWR is done only after finishing the write of all pages of the block, but without the need to store an excessive amount of data on the controller. This can be done as the parity code is gradually computed while pages are being written into the flash and discarded from controller memory. The exemplary embodiment uses volatile memory for the parity code as it is updated page by page as the data comes in, which is not available in flash memory.
CONCLUSION
Although the various aspects of the present invention have been described with respect to certain embodiments, it is understood that the invention is entitled to protection within the full scope of the appended claims.

Claims (31)

It is claimed:
1. A method of operating a memory system including an array of flash memory cells formed along a plurality of word lines each capable of storing one or more pages of data, the method comprising:
receiving a first data page;
storing the received first data page in a first buffer;
writing the first data page from the first buffer into a corresponding word line of the flash memory;
generating a page of parity data for the received first page of data;
storing the page of parity data in a second buffer;
subsequent to receiving the first data page, sequentially receiving one or more additional pages of data, and for each of additional received page of data;
overwriting the preceding page of received data in the first buffer therewith;
writing the page of data from the first buffer into a corresponding word line of the flash memory; and
updating the page of parity data stored in the second buffer as a function of parity data as previously stored in the second buffer and the additional received page of data;
subsequently determining whether the first data page and the additional pages of data were written correctly; and
in response to determining that one of the data pages is written incorrectly, determining the correct data for the incorrectly written page based upon the page of parity data and the first and additional data pages as read from the array.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein overwriting the preceding page step is performed after verifying the completion of writing the first data page.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the memory system includes a memory circuit, including the array, and a controller circuit, wherein the page of parity data is generated by logic circuitry on the controller circuit and the second buffer is formed on the controller circuit.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the first data page and the additional pages of data were written correctly includes determining whether the pages individually have an acceptable amount of error.
5. The method of claim 4, whether each of the pages of data includes a user data portion and a corresponding error correction code (ECC) portion and wherein determining whether the pages individually have an acceptable amount of error comprises being able to read to read the user data portion using the corresponding ECC.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the memory system includes a memory circuit, including the array, and a controller circuit, including ECC circuitry, and wherein the corresponding ECC is generated by the ECC circuitry.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the page of parity data in the second buffer as a function of the previously stored parity data and the page comprises:
performing an exclusive OR operation of the contents of the second data buffer with the page; and
storing the result in the second buffer.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the page of parity data in the second buffer as a function of the previously stored parity data and the page comprises:
computing an erasure correction code parity page from the contents of the second data buffer and the page; and
storing the result in the second buffer.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the memory system includes a memory circuit, including the array, and a controller circuit, wherein the page of parity data is generate by logic circuitry on the controller circuit.
10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
re-writing the corrected data for the incorrectly written page to a new location.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the array is formed of a plurality of erase blocks each having a plurality of word lines, the method further comprising:
re-writing the corrected data for the incorrectly written page and the other pages of data of the block to which the incorrectly written page was incorrectly written to a different block; and
marking the block to which the incorrectly written page was incorrectly written as defective in a memory management structure for the memory system.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein the memory cells are multistate cells storing N-bits per cell, N being an integer two or greater, and the word lines each capable of storing N logical pages arranged as an upper-most logical page to a lower-most logical page, wherein writing the first data page and the additional pages of data into corresponding word lines comprises:
writing each of the first data page and the additional pages of data into a first of the logical pages that is the same on each of the corresponding word lines.
13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:
receiving a second plurality of data pages, the second set having the same number of pages as the first data page and the additional pages of data;
generating a second page of parity data for the second set of data pages;
storing the second page of parity data in the second buffer, where the second buffer can hold the second page of parity data concurrently with the parity data generated as a function of the first data page and the additional pages of data;
writing each of the second set of data pages into a second of the logical pages that is the same on each of the corresponding word lines, the second of the logical pages being different than the first of the logical pages;
subsequently determining whether the second set of data pages was written correctly; and
in response to determining that a first page of the second set of data pages is written incorrectly, determining the correct data for the incorrectly written page based upon the second page of parity data and others of the pages of the second set of pages as read from the array.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the array is formed of a plurality of erase blocks each having a plurality of word lines, and wherein the corresponding plurality of word lines are all of the word lines of a block.
15. The method of claim 13, wherein the array is formed of a plurality of erase blocks each having a plurality of word lines, and wherein the corresponding plurality of word lines are every other word line of a block.
16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:
receiving third and fourth sets of data pages, the third and fourth sets having the same number of pages;
generating a third and a fourth page of parity data respectively for each of the third and fourth sets of data pages;
storing the third and fourth pages of parity data in the second buffer, where the second buffer can hold the second, third and fourth pages of parity data concurrently with the generated as a function of the first data page and the additional pages of data;
writing each of the third and fourth set of data pages respectively into the first and second of the logical pages on each of the alternate word lines that are not written with the first and second sets of data;
subsequently determining whether the third or fourth set of data pages was written correctly; and
in response to determining that a first page of one or both of the third and fourth set of data pages is written incorrectly, determining the correct data thereof based upon the corresponding page of parity data and others of the pages of the corresponding set of pages as read from the array.
17. The method of claim 1, wherein the array is formed of a plurality of erase blocks each having a plurality of word lines, and wherein the corresponding plurality of word lines are from the same block.
18. The method of claim 1, wherein the array is formed of a plurality of erase blocks each having a plurality of word lines, and wherein the corresponding plurality of word lines are every other word line of a block.
19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:
receiving a second plurality of data pages;
generating a second page of parity data for the second set of data pages;
storing the second page of parity data in the second buffer, where the second buffer can hold the second page of parity data concurrently with the parity data generated as a function of the first data page and the additional pages of data;
writing the second set of data pages respectively into the alternate word lines that are not written with the first data page and the additional pages of data;
subsequently determining whether the second set of data pages was written correctly; and
in response to determining that a first page of the second set of data pages is written incorrectly, determining the correct data for the incorrectly written page based upon the second page of parity data and others of the pages of the second set of pages as read from the array.
20. In a non-volatile memory system including a memory circuit, the memory circuit having an array of non-volatile memory cells formed along a plurality of word lines each capable of storing one or more pages of data, and a controller circuit controlling the transfer of data between the memory system and a host and managing the storage of data on the memory circuit, a method of operating the memory system, comprising:
performing a write operation of a plurality of pages of data into the memory array, including:
receiving from a host the plurality of pages of data at the controller circuit;
computing a data check result from the plurality of pages of data wherein the data check result is a many to one transformation such that plurality of data pages cannot be reconstructed based solely upon the data check result;
transferring the plurality of pages of data from the controller circuit to the memory circuit;
writing the plurality of pages of data into array;
discarding by the controller of one or more of the pages; and
subsequent to writing the plurality of pages of data into the array, performing a post-write verify operation to determine whether the plurality of pages of data were correctly written, wherein the post-write verify operation is performed as part of the write operation independently of a separate host command therefor; and
in response to determining that a first of the plurality of pages of data is not written correctly, the determined incorrectly written page being one of the pages discarded by the controller, reading one or more of the other data pages from the memory array and reconstructing the first page from the data check result and the other data pages read from the memory array.
21. The method of claim 20, wherein the controller discards said one or more pages subsequent to the transfer thereof to the memory circuit.
22. The method of claim 20, wherein the controller discards said one or more pages subsequent to the completion of the writing thereof.
23. The method of claim 20, wherein the controller discards said one or more pages subsequent to the completion of the writing and verification thereof.
24. The method of claim 20, wherein the data check result is generated by logic circuitry on the controller circuit and maintained in a buffer memory on the controller circuit.
25. The method of claim 20, wherein the data check result is computed using an erasure code encoder.
26. The method of claim 20, wherein the data check result is computed using an RS encoder.
27. The method of claim 20, wherein the data check result is computed as an exclusive OR operation of multiple ones of the plurality of pages of data.
28. The method of claim 20, further comprising:
re-writing the reconstructed first page to a new location on the memory circuit.
29. The method of claim 28, wherein the array is formed of a plurality of erase blocks each having a plurality of word lines, the method further comprising:
re-writing the reconstructed first page and the others of the plurality of pages of data of the block to which the first page was incorrectly written to a different block; and
marking the block to which the first page was incorrectly written as defective in a memory management structure for the memory system.
30. The method of claim 20, wherein the memory cells are multistate cells storing N-bits per cell, N being an integer two or greater, and the word-lines each capable of storing N logical pages, and wherein the plurality of pages of data includes first and second subsets each of multiple pages, wherein the first set of pages being written as lower logical pages on a corresponding set of multiple word-lines and the second set of pages begin written as upper logical pages the corresponding set of multiple word-lines, and wherein the data check result includes first and second data check results respectively computed from the first and second subsets, the method further including:
in response to determining that one of the pages of the first subset is not written correctly, the determined incorrectly written page being one of the pages discarded by the controller, reading one or more of the other data pages of the first subset from the memory array and reconstructing the incorrectly written page of the first subset from the first data check result and the other data pages of the first subset read from the memory array; and
in response to determining that one of the pages of the second subset is not written correctly, the determined incorrectly written page being one of the pages discarded by the controller, reading one or more of the other data pages of the second subset from the memory array and reconstructing the incorrectly written page of the second subset from the second data check result and the other data pages of the second subset read from the memory array.
31. The method of claim 30, wherein the first and second subsets are written into alternate ones of the word-lines, and wherein the plurality of pages of data further includes third and fourth subsets each of multiple pages, wherein the third set of pages being written as lower logical pages on a corresponding set of multiple word-lines and the fourth set of pages begin written as upper logical pages the corresponding set of multiple word-lines, the third and fourth subsets being written into the alternate ones of the word-lines not used for the first and second subsets, and wherein the data check result further includes third and fourth data check results respectively computed from the third and fourth subsets, the method including:
in response to determining that one of the pages of the third subset is not written correctly, the determined incorrectly written page being one of the pages discarded by the controller, reading one or more of the other data pages of the third subset from the memory array and reconstructing the incorrectly written page of the third subset from the third data check result and the other data pages of the third subset read from the memory array; and
in response to determining that one of the pages of the fourth subset is not written correctly, the determined incorrectly written page being one of the pages discarded by the controller, reading one or more of the other data pages of the fourth subset from the memory array and reconstructing the incorrectly written page of the fourth subset from the fourth data check result and the other data pages of the fourth subset read from the memory array.
US13/193,148 2011-07-28 2011-07-28 Data recovery for defective word lines during programming of non-volatile memory arrays Active 2032-02-20 US8775901B2 (en)

Priority Applications (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US13/193,148 US8775901B2 (en) 2011-07-28 2011-07-28 Data recovery for defective word lines during programming of non-volatile memory arrays
PCT/US2012/048080 WO2013016393A1 (en) 2011-07-28 2012-07-25 Data recovery for defective word lines during programming of non-volatile memory arrays
TW101127336A TW201316341A (en) 2011-07-28 2012-07-27 Data recovery for defective word lines during programming of non-volatile memory arrays

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US13/193,148 US8775901B2 (en) 2011-07-28 2011-07-28 Data recovery for defective word lines during programming of non-volatile memory arrays

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
US20130031429A1 US20130031429A1 (en) 2013-01-31
US8775901B2 true US8775901B2 (en) 2014-07-08

Family

ID=46604585

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US13/193,148 Active 2032-02-20 US8775901B2 (en) 2011-07-28 2011-07-28 Data recovery for defective word lines during programming of non-volatile memory arrays

Country Status (3)

Country Link
US (1) US8775901B2 (en)
TW (1) TW201316341A (en)
WO (1) WO2013016393A1 (en)

Cited By (29)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US9355735B1 (en) * 2015-02-20 2016-05-31 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Data recovery in a 3D memory device with a short circuit between word lines
US20160196181A1 (en) * 2012-06-07 2016-07-07 Micron Technology, Inc. Synchronized transfer of data and corresponding error correction data
US9437321B2 (en) 2014-10-28 2016-09-06 Sandisk Technologies Llc Error detection method
US9490035B2 (en) 2012-09-28 2016-11-08 SanDisk Technologies, Inc. Centralized variable rate serializer and deserializer for bad column management
US9558069B2 (en) 2014-08-07 2017-01-31 Pure Storage, Inc. Failure mapping in a storage array
US20170038985A1 (en) * 2013-03-14 2017-02-09 Seagate Technology Llc Nonvolatile memory data recovery after power failure
US9570160B1 (en) 2015-10-29 2017-02-14 Sandisk Technologies Llc Non-volatile storage system with defect detetction and early programming termination
US9612953B1 (en) 2014-01-16 2017-04-04 Pure Storage, Inc. Data placement based on data properties in a tiered storage device system
US9659666B2 (en) 2015-08-31 2017-05-23 Sandisk Technologies Llc Dynamic memory recovery at the sub-block level
US9672905B1 (en) 2016-07-22 2017-06-06 Pure Storage, Inc. Optimize data protection layouts based on distributed flash wear leveling
US9691485B1 (en) * 2016-07-11 2017-06-27 Sandisk Technologies Llc Storage system and method for marginal write-abort detection using a memory parameter change
US9711227B1 (en) 2016-04-28 2017-07-18 Sandisk Technologies Llc Non-volatile memory with in field failure prediction using leakage detection
US9747158B1 (en) 2017-01-13 2017-08-29 Pure Storage, Inc. Intelligent refresh of 3D NAND
US9766972B2 (en) 2014-08-07 2017-09-19 Pure Storage, Inc. Masking defective bits in a storage array
US9880899B2 (en) 2014-08-07 2018-01-30 Pure Storage, Inc. Die-level monitoring in a storage cluster
US9996417B2 (en) 2016-04-12 2018-06-12 Apple Inc. Data recovery in memory having multiple failure modes
US10198315B2 (en) 2016-02-29 2019-02-05 Sandisk Technologies Llc Non-volatile memory with corruption recovery
US10644726B2 (en) 2013-10-18 2020-05-05 Universite De Nantes Method and apparatus for reconstructing a data block
US10755787B2 (en) 2018-06-28 2020-08-25 Apple Inc. Efficient post programming verification in a nonvolatile memory
US10762967B2 (en) 2018-06-28 2020-09-01 Apple Inc. Recovering from failure in programming a nonvolatile memory
US10915394B1 (en) 2019-09-22 2021-02-09 Apple Inc. Schemes for protecting data in NVM device using small storage footprint
US10936455B2 (en) 2019-02-11 2021-03-02 Apple Inc. Recovery of data failing due to impairment whose severity depends on bit-significance value
US11029874B2 (en) 2019-07-30 2021-06-08 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Rolling XOR protection in efficient pipeline
US11106530B2 (en) * 2019-12-20 2021-08-31 Micron Technology, Inc. Parity protection
US11211119B1 (en) 2020-06-11 2021-12-28 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. QLC programming method with staging of fine data
US11550657B1 (en) 2021-09-01 2023-01-10 Apple Inc. Efficient programming schemes in a nonvolatile memory
US11568938B2 (en) 2020-11-03 2023-01-31 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. QLC data programming
US11861195B2 (en) 2021-03-15 2024-01-02 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. TLC data programming with hybrid parity
US11967367B2 (en) 2021-10-07 2024-04-23 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Nonvolatile memory device and storage device including nonvolatile memory device

Families Citing this family (51)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8726104B2 (en) 2011-07-28 2014-05-13 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Non-volatile memory and method with accelerated post-write read using combined verification of multiple pages
US8750042B2 (en) * 2011-07-28 2014-06-10 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Combined simultaneous sensing of multiple wordlines in a post-write read (PWR) and detection of NAND failures
US8730722B2 (en) 2012-03-02 2014-05-20 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Saving of data in cases of word-line to word-line short in memory arrays
KR102154296B1 (en) * 2012-12-18 2020-09-14 삼성전자 주식회사 A driving method of nonvolatile memory device using variable resistive element and the nonvolatile memory device
US9367391B2 (en) 2013-03-15 2016-06-14 Micron Technology, Inc. Error correction operations in a memory device
US20150006784A1 (en) 2013-06-27 2015-01-01 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Efficient Post Write Read in Three Dimensional Nonvolatile Memory
US9218242B2 (en) 2013-07-02 2015-12-22 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Write operations for defect management in nonvolatile memory
US9063671B2 (en) 2013-07-02 2015-06-23 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Write operations with full sequence programming for defect management in nonvolatile memory
US9152497B2 (en) 2013-08-23 2015-10-06 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Data recovery from blocks with gate shorts
US9189332B1 (en) * 2013-09-13 2015-11-17 Seagate Technology Llc Parity data in solid state memory
US9165683B2 (en) 2013-09-23 2015-10-20 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Multi-word line erratic programming detection
US9229801B2 (en) 2013-09-24 2016-01-05 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Method and device for write abort protection
US9235470B2 (en) 2013-10-03 2016-01-12 SanDisk Technologies, Inc. Adaptive EPWR (enhanced post write read) scheduling
KR102170975B1 (en) * 2013-10-31 2020-10-28 삼성전자주식회사 Nonvolatile memory device and defected wordline detection method thereof
US9501400B2 (en) 2013-11-13 2016-11-22 Sandisk Technologies Llc Identification and operation of sub-prime blocks in nonvolatile memory
US9043537B1 (en) 2013-11-21 2015-05-26 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Update block programming order
US9058881B1 (en) 2013-12-05 2015-06-16 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Systems and methods for partial page programming of multi level cells
US9244631B2 (en) 2013-12-06 2016-01-26 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Lower page only host burst writes
US10067829B2 (en) * 2013-12-13 2018-09-04 Intel Corporation Managing redundancy information in a non-volatile memory
US9239756B2 (en) 2013-12-13 2016-01-19 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Systems and methods for performing data recovery in a memory system
US9208023B2 (en) 2013-12-23 2015-12-08 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Systems and methods for scheduling post-write read in nonvolatile memory
US9323607B2 (en) 2014-04-29 2016-04-26 Seagate Technology Llc Data recovery once ECC fails to correct the data
US8902652B1 (en) 2014-05-13 2014-12-02 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Systems and methods for lower page writes
KR102321501B1 (en) * 2014-05-14 2021-11-05 삼성전자주식회사 Nonvolatile memory device and operation method of storage device comprising the nonvolatile memory device
US8886877B1 (en) 2014-05-15 2014-11-11 Sandisk Technologies Inc. In-situ block folding for nonvolatile memory
US9443612B2 (en) 2014-07-10 2016-09-13 Sandisk Technologies Llc Determination of bit line to low voltage signal shorts
US9484086B2 (en) 2014-07-10 2016-11-01 Sandisk Technologies Llc Determination of word line to local source line shorts
US9514835B2 (en) 2014-07-10 2016-12-06 Sandisk Technologies Llc Determination of word line to word line shorts between adjacent blocks
US9460809B2 (en) 2014-07-10 2016-10-04 Sandisk Technologies Llc AC stress mode to screen out word line to word line shorts
US9804922B2 (en) 2014-07-21 2017-10-31 Sandisk Technologies Llc Partial bad block detection and re-use using EPWR for block based architectures
TWI512750B (en) * 2014-07-30 2015-12-11 Phison Electronics Corp Data storing method, memory control circuit unit and memory storage device
US9240249B1 (en) 2014-09-02 2016-01-19 Sandisk Technologies Inc. AC stress methods to screen out bit line defects
US9202593B1 (en) 2014-09-02 2015-12-01 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Techniques for detecting broken word lines in non-volatile memories
US9449694B2 (en) 2014-09-04 2016-09-20 Sandisk Technologies Llc Non-volatile memory with multi-word line select for defect detection operations
US9934872B2 (en) 2014-10-30 2018-04-03 Sandisk Technologies Llc Erase stress and delta erase loop count methods for various fail modes in non-volatile memory
CN106797075B (en) * 2015-08-31 2020-08-07 华为技术有限公司 Antenna oscillator for dual polarization of multi-frequency antenna
US9858009B2 (en) 2015-10-26 2018-01-02 Sandisk Technologies Llc Data folding in 3D nonvolatile memory
US10142419B2 (en) 2016-03-04 2018-11-27 Sandisk Technologies Llc Erasure correcting coding using data subsets and partial parity symbols
US10218789B2 (en) 2016-03-04 2019-02-26 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Erasure correcting coding using temporary erasure data
CN109828794B (en) * 2017-11-23 2021-09-17 建兴储存科技(广州)有限公司 Solid state storage device and loading method of related program thereof
KR20190069966A (en) * 2017-12-12 2019-06-20 에스케이하이닉스 주식회사 Nonvolatile memory device, memory system using the same and operating method thereof
CN112823331B (en) * 2018-10-10 2024-03-29 阿里巴巴集团控股有限公司 Systems and methods for data recovery in parallel multi-tenant SSDs with finer granularity
WO2020077489A1 (en) * 2018-10-15 2020-04-23 华为技术有限公司 Method for processing storage block, and related device
TWI688960B (en) * 2019-04-18 2020-03-21 旺宏電子股份有限公司 Memory device
US10877900B1 (en) 2019-06-26 2020-12-29 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Enabling faster and regulated device initialization times
US11183267B2 (en) * 2019-07-12 2021-11-23 Micron Technology, Inc. Recovery management of retired super management units
TWI722797B (en) * 2020-02-17 2021-03-21 財團法人工業技術研究院 Computation operator in memory and operation method thereof
US11302409B2 (en) * 2020-04-21 2022-04-12 Sandisk Technologies Llc Programming techniques including an all string verify mode for single-level cells of a memory device
US11138071B1 (en) 2020-06-22 2021-10-05 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. On-chip parity buffer management for storage block combining in non-volatile memory
US11527300B2 (en) 2020-08-26 2022-12-13 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Level dependent error correction code protection in multi-level non-volatile memory
US11436083B2 (en) 2020-09-04 2022-09-06 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Data address management in non-volatile memory

Citations (134)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5070032A (en) 1989-03-15 1991-12-03 Sundisk Corporation Method of making dense flash eeprom semiconductor memory structures
US5095344A (en) 1988-06-08 1992-03-10 Eliyahou Harari Highly compact eprom and flash eeprom devices
US5172338A (en) 1989-04-13 1992-12-15 Sundisk Corporation Multi-state EEprom read and write circuits and techniques
US5313421A (en) 1992-01-14 1994-05-17 Sundisk Corporation EEPROM with split gate source side injection
US5315541A (en) 1992-07-24 1994-05-24 Sundisk Corporation Segmented column memory array
US5321699A (en) 1991-03-12 1994-06-14 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Electrically erasable and programmable non-volatile memory system with write-verify controller using two reference levels
US5335198A (en) 1993-05-06 1994-08-02 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Flash EEPROM array with high endurance
US5343063A (en) 1990-12-18 1994-08-30 Sundisk Corporation Dense vertical programmable read only memory cell structure and processes for making them
US5428621A (en) 1992-09-21 1995-06-27 Sundisk Corporation Latent defect handling in EEPROM devices
US5436587A (en) 1993-11-24 1995-07-25 Sundisk Corporation Charge pump circuit with exponetral multiplication
US5570315A (en) 1993-09-21 1996-10-29 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Multi-state EEPROM having write-verify control circuit
US5595924A (en) 1994-05-25 1997-01-21 Sandisk Corporation Technique of forming over an irregular surface a polysilicon layer with a smooth surface
US5602789A (en) 1991-03-12 1997-02-11 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Electrically erasable and programmable non-volatile and multi-level memory systemn with write-verify controller
US5671388A (en) 1995-05-03 1997-09-23 Intel Corporation Method and apparatus for performing write operations in multi-level cell storage device
US5673222A (en) 1995-06-20 1997-09-30 Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device
US5768192A (en) 1996-07-23 1998-06-16 Saifun Semiconductors, Ltd. Non-volatile semiconductor memory cell utilizing asymmetrical charge trapping
US5822256A (en) 1994-09-06 1998-10-13 Intel Corporation Method and circuitry for usage of partially functional nonvolatile memory
US5867429A (en) 1997-11-19 1999-02-02 Sandisk Corporation High density non-volatile flash memory without adverse effects of electric field coupling between adjacent floating gates
US5903495A (en) 1996-03-18 1999-05-11 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Semiconductor device and memory system
US5930167A (en) 1997-07-30 1999-07-27 Sandisk Corporation Multi-state non-volatile flash memory capable of being its own two state write cache
US6011725A (en) 1997-08-01 2000-01-04 Saifun Semiconductors, Ltd. Two bit non-volatile electrically erasable and programmable semiconductor memory cell utilizing asymmetrical charge trapping
US6064591A (en) 1996-04-19 2000-05-16 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Memory system
US6134140A (en) 1997-05-14 2000-10-17 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device with soft-programming to adjust erased state of memory cells
US6185709B1 (en) 1998-06-30 2001-02-06 International Business Machines Corporation Device for indicating the fixability of a logic circuit
US6205055B1 (en) 2000-02-25 2001-03-20 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Dynamic memory cell programming voltage
US6215697B1 (en) 1999-01-14 2001-04-10 Macronix International Co., Ltd. Multi-level memory cell device and method for self-converged programming
US6219286B1 (en) 1999-06-04 2001-04-17 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Semiconductor memory having reduced time for writing defective information
US6219276B1 (en) 2000-02-25 2001-04-17 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Multilevel cell programming
US6222762B1 (en) 1992-01-14 2001-04-24 Sandisk Corporation Multi-state memory
US20010015932A1 (en) 1992-12-03 2001-08-23 Fujitsu Limited Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device having electrically and collectively erasable characteristics
US6285597B2 (en) 1996-09-30 2001-09-04 Hitachi, Ltd. Semiconductor integrated circuit and data processing system
US20020007386A1 (en) 2000-06-28 2002-01-17 Martin David A. System and method for reducing timing mismatch in sample and hold circuits using an FFT and decimation
US6370075B1 (en) 1998-06-30 2002-04-09 Sandisk Corporation Charge pump circuit adjustable in response to an external voltage source
US6456528B1 (en) 2001-09-17 2002-09-24 Sandisk Corporation Selective operation of a multi-state non-volatile memory system in a binary mode
US6560143B2 (en) 2000-12-28 2003-05-06 Sandisk Corporation Method and structure for efficient data verification operation for non-volatile memories
US20030117851A1 (en) 2001-12-24 2003-06-26 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. NAND-type flash memory device with multi-page program, multi-page read, multi-block erase operations
US6625061B2 (en) 2000-10-25 2003-09-23 Fujitsu Limited Method of managing a defect in a flash memory
US20030217323A1 (en) 2002-05-20 2003-11-20 Sandisk Corporation Increasing the effectiveness of error correction codes and operating multi-level memory systems by using information about the quality of the stored data
US20040022092A1 (en) 2002-08-01 2004-02-05 Ran Dvir Defects detection
US20050024939A1 (en) 2003-07-29 2005-02-03 Jian Chen Detecting over programmed memory
US20050068802A1 (en) 2003-09-29 2005-03-31 Yoshiyuki Tanaka Semiconductor storage device and method of controlling the same
US6913823B2 (en) 2001-07-26 2005-07-05 Montefibre S.P.A. Process for the preparation of water repellent materials made of acrylic fiber
US6914823B2 (en) 2003-07-29 2005-07-05 Sandisk Corporation Detecting over programmed memory after further programming
US6917543B2 (en) 2002-08-30 2005-07-12 Nec Electronics Corporation Flash memory for improving write access time
US20050160316A1 (en) 2002-12-02 2005-07-21 Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd Mechanism for reducing write problems by controlling charge pumps for flash memory
US6922096B2 (en) 2003-08-07 2005-07-26 Sandisk Corporation Area efficient charge pump
US20050219896A1 (en) 2004-04-06 2005-10-06 Jian Chen Variable programming of non-volatile memory
US7009889B2 (en) 2004-05-28 2006-03-07 Sandisk Corporation Comprehensive erase verification for non-volatile memory
US7012835B2 (en) 2003-10-03 2006-03-14 Sandisk Corporation Flash memory data correction and scrub techniques
US7030683B2 (en) 2004-05-10 2006-04-18 Sandisk Corporation Four phase charge pump operable without phase overlap with improved efficiency
US20060090112A1 (en) 2004-10-08 2006-04-27 International Business Machines Corporation Memory device verification of multiple write operations
US20060098505A1 (en) 2004-11-04 2006-05-11 Chih-Hung Cho Failure test method for split gate flash memory
US20060140007A1 (en) 2004-12-29 2006-06-29 Raul-Adrian Cernea Non-volatile memory and method with shared processing for an aggregate of read/write circuits
US20060221714A1 (en) 2005-04-05 2006-10-05 Yan Li Read operation for non-volatile storage that includes compensation for coupling
US20060227602A1 (en) 2005-03-28 2006-10-12 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Semiconductor memory device
US20060239111A1 (en) 2004-04-21 2006-10-26 Masaki Shingo Non-volatile semiconductor device and method for automatically recovering erase failure in the device
US7135910B2 (en) 2002-09-27 2006-11-14 Sandisk Corporation Charge pump with fibonacci number multiplication
US7158421B2 (en) 2005-04-01 2007-01-02 Sandisk Corporation Use of data latches in multi-phase programming of non-volatile memories
US7170802B2 (en) 2003-12-31 2007-01-30 Sandisk Corporation Flexible and area efficient column redundancy for non-volatile memories
US20070030732A1 (en) 2005-07-28 2007-02-08 Rino Micheloni Double page programming system and method
US7206230B2 (en) 2005-04-01 2007-04-17 Sandisk Corporation Use of data latches in cache operations of non-volatile memories
US20070126494A1 (en) 2005-12-06 2007-06-07 Sandisk Corporation Charge pump having shunt diode for improved operating efficiency
US20070139099A1 (en) 2005-12-16 2007-06-21 Sandisk Corporation Charge pump regulation control for improved power efficiency
US7243275B2 (en) 2002-12-05 2007-07-10 Sandisk Corporation Smart verify for multi-state memories
US20070171719A1 (en) 2005-12-19 2007-07-26 Hemink Gerrit J Method for programming non-volatile memory with reduced program disturb using modified pass voltages
US20070201274A1 (en) 2000-01-06 2007-08-30 Super Talent Electronics Inc. Cell-Downgrading and Reference-Voltage Adjustment for a Multi-Bit-Cell Flash Memory
US20070234183A1 (en) 2006-03-31 2007-10-04 Sang-Won Hwang Multi-bit memory device and memory system
US7304893B1 (en) 2006-06-30 2007-12-04 Sandisk Corporation Method of partial page fail bit detection in flash memory devices
US20070280000A1 (en) 2004-11-12 2007-12-06 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Method of writing data to a semiconductor memory device
US20070296391A1 (en) 2006-02-17 2007-12-27 Bertin Jacques J Current-monitoring apparatus
US20080062770A1 (en) 2006-09-12 2008-03-13 Loc Tu Non-Volatile Memory With Linear Estimation of Initial Programming Voltage
US7345928B2 (en) 2004-12-14 2008-03-18 Sandisk Corporation Data recovery methods in multi-state memory after program fail
US7368979B2 (en) 2006-09-19 2008-05-06 Sandisk Corporation Implementation of output floating scheme for hv charge pumps
US20080177956A1 (en) 2007-01-24 2008-07-24 Peddle Charles I Page-based failure management for flash memory
US7428180B2 (en) 2006-01-25 2008-09-23 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Semiconductor memory devices and methods of testing for failed bits of semiconductor memory devices
US7440319B2 (en) 2006-11-27 2008-10-21 Sandisk Corporation Apparatus with segmented bitscan for verification of programming
US20080301532A1 (en) 2006-09-25 2008-12-04 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Non-volatile semiconductor memory device
US20080307342A1 (en) 2007-06-08 2008-12-11 Apple Inc. Rendering Semi-Transparent User Interface Elements
US20090058506A1 (en) 2007-08-28 2009-03-05 Prajit Nandi Bottom Plate Regulation of Charge Pumps
US20090063918A1 (en) 2007-08-27 2009-03-05 Macronix International Co., Ltd. Apparatus and method for detecting word line leakage in memory devices
US20090058507A1 (en) 2007-08-28 2009-03-05 Prajit Nandi Bottom Plate Regulated Charge Pump
US20090073763A1 (en) 2007-09-14 2009-03-19 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Method for controlling a non-volatile semiconductor memory device
US20090100290A1 (en) 2005-08-22 2009-04-16 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Memory controller, nonvolatile memory device, nonvolatile memory system, and data writing method
US20090153232A1 (en) 2007-05-25 2009-06-18 Atmel Corporation Low voltage charge pump
US20090153230A1 (en) 2007-12-12 2009-06-18 Feng Pan Low Voltage Charge Pump with Regulation
US7554311B2 (en) 2006-07-31 2009-06-30 Sandisk Corporation Hybrid charge pump regulation
US20090190397A1 (en) 2008-01-30 2009-07-30 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Memory device and data reading method
US20090228739A1 (en) 2007-11-25 2009-09-10 Itzic Cohen Recovery while programming non-volatile memory (nvm)
US7616484B2 (en) 1992-05-20 2009-11-10 Sandisk Corporation Soft errors handling in EEPROM devices
US7616499B2 (en) 2006-12-28 2009-11-10 Sandisk Corporation Retention margin program verification
US20090287874A1 (en) 2008-05-13 2009-11-19 Microsoft Corporation Flash Recovery Employing Transaction Log
US20090295434A1 (en) 2008-06-02 2009-12-03 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Signal receiving device
US20090310423A1 (en) 2007-07-13 2009-12-17 Macronix International Co., Ltd. Method of programming and erasing a non-volatile memory array
US20090316483A1 (en) 2008-06-23 2009-12-24 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Flash memory device and system including the same
US20090315616A1 (en) 2008-06-24 2009-12-24 Qui Vi Nguyen Clock Generator Circuit for a Charge Pump
US20090322413A1 (en) 2008-06-25 2009-12-31 Huynh Jonathan H Techniques of Ripple Reduction for Charge Pumps
US20100027336A1 (en) 2008-07-29 2010-02-04 Park June-Hong Non-volatile memory device and associated programming method using error checking and correction (ECC)
US20100054019A1 (en) 2008-08-29 2010-03-04 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Resistance change memory device
US20100070209A1 (en) 2008-09-18 2010-03-18 Enraf B.V. Method and apparatus for adaptively handling level measurements under unstable conditions
US20100082881A1 (en) 2008-09-30 2010-04-01 Micron Technology, Inc., Solid state storage device controller with expansion mode
US20100091568A1 (en) 2008-10-10 2010-04-15 Yan Li Nonvolatile Memory and Method With Reduced Program Verify by Ignoring Fastest and/or Slowest Programming Bits
US7716538B2 (en) 2006-09-27 2010-05-11 Sandisk Corporation Memory with cell population distribution assisted read margining
US20100131809A1 (en) 2007-12-05 2010-05-27 Michael Katz Apparatus and methods for generating row-specific reading thresholds in flash memory
US20100148856A1 (en) 2008-12-17 2010-06-17 Man Lung Lui Regulation of Recovery Rates in Charge Pumps
US20100174847A1 (en) 2009-01-05 2010-07-08 Alexander Paley Non-Volatile Memory and Method With Write Cache Partition Management Methods
US20100172180A1 (en) 2009-01-05 2010-07-08 Alexander Paley Non-Volatile Memory and Method With Write Cache Partitioning
US20100174846A1 (en) 2009-01-05 2010-07-08 Alexander Paley Nonvolatile Memory With Write Cache Having Flush/Eviction Methods
US20100174845A1 (en) 2009-01-05 2010-07-08 Sergey Anatolievich Gorobets Wear Leveling for Non-Volatile Memories: Maintenance of Experience Count and Passive Techniques
US7843732B2 (en) 2007-08-30 2010-11-30 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Methods of operating multi-bit flash memory devices and related systems
EP2261806A1 (en) 2008-02-28 2010-12-15 Fujitsu Limited Storage device, storage controller, data transfer integrated circuit, and method of controlling storage
US7864588B2 (en) 2007-09-17 2011-01-04 Spansion Israel Ltd. Minimizing read disturb in an array flash cell
US7864578B2 (en) 2008-06-30 2011-01-04 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Semiconductor memory repairing a defective bit and semiconductor memory system
US20110013457A1 (en) 2009-07-15 2011-01-20 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Nonvolatile memory devices and programming methods thereof in which a program inhibit voltage is changed during programming
US20110035538A1 (en) 2009-08-06 2011-02-10 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Nonvolatile memory system using data interleaving scheme
US20110063918A1 (en) 2009-09-11 2011-03-17 Gen Pei Identifying at-risk data in non-volatile storage
US20110066793A1 (en) 2009-09-15 2011-03-17 Gregory Burd Implementing RAID In Solid State Memory
US20110099418A1 (en) 2009-10-28 2011-04-28 Jian Chen Non-Volatile Memory And Method With Post-Write Read And Adaptive Re-Write To Manage Errors
US20110096601A1 (en) 2009-10-28 2011-04-28 Gavens Lee M Non-Volatile Memory And Method With Accelerated Post-Write Read To Manage Errors
US20110099460A1 (en) 2009-10-28 2011-04-28 Gautam Ashok Dusija Non-Volatile Memory And Method With Post-Write Read And Adaptive Re-Write To Manage Errors
US20110145633A1 (en) 2009-12-15 2011-06-16 International Business Machines Corporation Blocking Write Acces to Memory Modules of a Solid State Drive
US20110149651A1 (en) 2009-12-18 2011-06-23 Sergey Anatolievich Gorobets Non-Volatile Memory And Method With Atomic Program Sequence And Write Abort Detection
US20110148509A1 (en) 2009-12-17 2011-06-23 Feng Pan Techniques to Reduce Charge Pump Overshoot
US7969235B2 (en) 2008-06-09 2011-06-28 Sandisk Corporation Self-adaptive multi-stage charge pump
US20110161784A1 (en) 2009-12-30 2011-06-30 Selinger Robert D Method and Controller for Performing a Copy-Back Operation
US7973592B2 (en) 2009-07-21 2011-07-05 Sandisk Corporation Charge pump with current based regulation
US20110182121A1 (en) 2010-01-28 2011-07-28 Deepanshu Dutta Data recovery for non-volatile memory based on count of data state-specific fails
US8027195B2 (en) 2009-06-05 2011-09-27 SanDisk Technologies, Inc. Folding data stored in binary format into multi-state format within non-volatile memory devices
US8040744B2 (en) 2009-01-05 2011-10-18 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Spare block management of non-volatile memories
US8054680B2 (en) 2003-05-28 2011-11-08 Renesas Electronics Corporation Semiconductor device
US20120008410A1 (en) 2010-07-09 2012-01-12 Huynh Jonathan H Detection of Word-Line Leakage in Memory Arrays: Current Based Approach
US20120008384A1 (en) 2010-07-09 2012-01-12 Yan Li Detection of Word-Line Leakage in Memory Arrays
US20120008405A1 (en) 2010-07-09 2012-01-12 Grishma Shailesh Shah Detection of Broken Word-Lines in Memory Arrays
US8102705B2 (en) 2009-06-05 2012-01-24 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Structure and method for shuffling data within non-volatile memory devices
US20120311407A1 (en) * 2011-05-30 2012-12-06 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Methods of operating non-volatile memory devices during write operation interruption, non-volatile memory devices, memories and electronic systems operating the same

Family Cites Families (20)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US6510488B2 (en) 2001-02-05 2003-01-21 M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers Ltd. Method for fast wake-up of a flash memory system
CN102737180A (en) 2002-08-08 2012-10-17 晟碟以色列有限公司 Integrated circuit for digital rights management
US7310347B2 (en) 2004-03-14 2007-12-18 Sandisk, Il Ltd. States encoding in multi-bit flash cells
US20050213393A1 (en) 2004-03-14 2005-09-29 M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers, Ltd. States encoding in multi-bit flash cells for optimizing error rate
US7493457B2 (en) 2004-11-08 2009-02-17 Sandisk Il. Ltd States encoding in multi-bit flash cells for optimizing error rate
US7426623B2 (en) 2005-01-14 2008-09-16 Sandisk Il Ltd System and method for configuring flash memory partitions as super-units
US8341371B2 (en) 2005-01-31 2012-12-25 Sandisk Il Ltd Method of managing copy operations in flash memories
US7913004B2 (en) 2005-09-06 2011-03-22 Sandisk Il Ltd Portable selective memory data exchange device
US7752382B2 (en) 2005-09-09 2010-07-06 Sandisk Il Ltd Flash memory storage system and method
US20070086244A1 (en) 2005-10-17 2007-04-19 Msystems Ltd. Data restoration in case of page-programming failure
US7954037B2 (en) 2005-10-25 2011-05-31 Sandisk Il Ltd Method for recovering from errors in flash memory
US8020060B2 (en) 2006-01-18 2011-09-13 Sandisk Il Ltd Method of arranging data in a multi-level cell memory device
US7502254B2 (en) 2006-04-11 2009-03-10 Sandisk Il Ltd Method for generating soft bits in flash memories
US8330878B2 (en) 2006-05-08 2012-12-11 Sandisk Il Ltd. Remotely controllable media distribution device
US7583545B2 (en) 2006-05-21 2009-09-01 Sandisk Il Ltd Method of storing data in a multi-bit-cell flash memory
US7711890B2 (en) 2006-06-06 2010-05-04 Sandisk Il Ltd Cache control in a non-volatile memory device
US7660166B2 (en) 2007-01-31 2010-02-09 Sandisk Il Ltd. Method of improving programming precision in flash memory
US7904793B2 (en) 2007-03-29 2011-03-08 Sandisk Corporation Method for decoding data in non-volatile storage using reliability metrics based on multiple reads
US7975209B2 (en) 2007-03-31 2011-07-05 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Non-volatile memory with guided simulated annealing error correction control
US7966550B2 (en) 2007-03-31 2011-06-21 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Soft bit data transmission for error correction control in non-volatile memory

Patent Citations (147)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5095344A (en) 1988-06-08 1992-03-10 Eliyahou Harari Highly compact eprom and flash eeprom devices
US5070032A (en) 1989-03-15 1991-12-03 Sundisk Corporation Method of making dense flash eeprom semiconductor memory structures
US5172338A (en) 1989-04-13 1992-12-15 Sundisk Corporation Multi-state EEprom read and write circuits and techniques
US5172338B1 (en) 1989-04-13 1997-07-08 Sandisk Corp Multi-state eeprom read and write circuits and techniques
US5343063A (en) 1990-12-18 1994-08-30 Sundisk Corporation Dense vertical programmable read only memory cell structure and processes for making them
US5321699A (en) 1991-03-12 1994-06-14 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Electrically erasable and programmable non-volatile memory system with write-verify controller using two reference levels
US5386422A (en) 1991-03-12 1995-01-31 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Electrically erasable and programmable non-volatile memory system with write-verify controller using two reference levels
US5602789A (en) 1991-03-12 1997-02-11 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Electrically erasable and programmable non-volatile and multi-level memory systemn with write-verify controller
US5469444A (en) 1991-03-12 1995-11-21 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Electrically erasable and programmable non-volatile memory system with write-verify controller using two reference levels
US5313421A (en) 1992-01-14 1994-05-17 Sundisk Corporation EEPROM with split gate source side injection
US6222762B1 (en) 1992-01-14 2001-04-24 Sandisk Corporation Multi-state memory
US7616484B2 (en) 1992-05-20 2009-11-10 Sandisk Corporation Soft errors handling in EEPROM devices
US5315541A (en) 1992-07-24 1994-05-24 Sundisk Corporation Segmented column memory array
US5428621A (en) 1992-09-21 1995-06-27 Sundisk Corporation Latent defect handling in EEPROM devices
US20010015932A1 (en) 1992-12-03 2001-08-23 Fujitsu Limited Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device having electrically and collectively erasable characteristics
US5335198A (en) 1993-05-06 1994-08-02 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Flash EEPROM array with high endurance
US5570315A (en) 1993-09-21 1996-10-29 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Multi-state EEPROM having write-verify control circuit
US5436587A (en) 1993-11-24 1995-07-25 Sundisk Corporation Charge pump circuit with exponetral multiplication
US5661053A (en) 1994-05-25 1997-08-26 Sandisk Corporation Method of making dense flash EEPROM cell array and peripheral supporting circuits formed in deposited field oxide with the use of spacers
US5595924A (en) 1994-05-25 1997-01-21 Sandisk Corporation Technique of forming over an irregular surface a polysilicon layer with a smooth surface
US5822256A (en) 1994-09-06 1998-10-13 Intel Corporation Method and circuitry for usage of partially functional nonvolatile memory
US5671388A (en) 1995-05-03 1997-09-23 Intel Corporation Method and apparatus for performing write operations in multi-level cell storage device
US5673222A (en) 1995-06-20 1997-09-30 Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device
US5903495A (en) 1996-03-18 1999-05-11 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Semiconductor device and memory system
US6046935A (en) 1996-03-18 2000-04-04 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Semiconductor device and memory system
US6064591A (en) 1996-04-19 2000-05-16 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Memory system
US5768192A (en) 1996-07-23 1998-06-16 Saifun Semiconductors, Ltd. Non-volatile semiconductor memory cell utilizing asymmetrical charge trapping
US6285597B2 (en) 1996-09-30 2001-09-04 Hitachi, Ltd. Semiconductor integrated circuit and data processing system
US6134140A (en) 1997-05-14 2000-10-17 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device with soft-programming to adjust erased state of memory cells
US5930167A (en) 1997-07-30 1999-07-27 Sandisk Corporation Multi-state non-volatile flash memory capable of being its own two state write cache
US6011725A (en) 1997-08-01 2000-01-04 Saifun Semiconductors, Ltd. Two bit non-volatile electrically erasable and programmable semiconductor memory cell utilizing asymmetrical charge trapping
US5867429A (en) 1997-11-19 1999-02-02 Sandisk Corporation High density non-volatile flash memory without adverse effects of electric field coupling between adjacent floating gates
US6185709B1 (en) 1998-06-30 2001-02-06 International Business Machines Corporation Device for indicating the fixability of a logic circuit
US6760262B2 (en) 1998-06-30 2004-07-06 Sandisk Corporation Charge pump circuit adjustable in response to an external voltage source
US6556465B2 (en) 1998-06-30 2003-04-29 Sandisk Corporation Adjustable circuits for analog or multi-level memory
US6370075B1 (en) 1998-06-30 2002-04-09 Sandisk Corporation Charge pump circuit adjustable in response to an external voltage source
US6215697B1 (en) 1999-01-14 2001-04-10 Macronix International Co., Ltd. Multi-level memory cell device and method for self-converged programming
US6219286B1 (en) 1999-06-04 2001-04-17 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Semiconductor memory having reduced time for writing defective information
US20070201274A1 (en) 2000-01-06 2007-08-30 Super Talent Electronics Inc. Cell-Downgrading and Reference-Voltage Adjustment for a Multi-Bit-Cell Flash Memory
US6219276B1 (en) 2000-02-25 2001-04-17 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Multilevel cell programming
US6205055B1 (en) 2000-02-25 2001-03-20 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Dynamic memory cell programming voltage
US20020007386A1 (en) 2000-06-28 2002-01-17 Martin David A. System and method for reducing timing mismatch in sample and hold circuits using an FFT and decimation
US6625061B2 (en) 2000-10-25 2003-09-23 Fujitsu Limited Method of managing a defect in a flash memory
US6560143B2 (en) 2000-12-28 2003-05-06 Sandisk Corporation Method and structure for efficient data verification operation for non-volatile memories
US7376011B2 (en) 2000-12-28 2008-05-20 Sandisk Corporation Method and structure for efficient data verification operation for non-volatile memories
US6913823B2 (en) 2001-07-26 2005-07-05 Montefibre S.P.A. Process for the preparation of water repellent materials made of acrylic fiber
US6456528B1 (en) 2001-09-17 2002-09-24 Sandisk Corporation Selective operation of a multi-state non-volatile memory system in a binary mode
US20030117851A1 (en) 2001-12-24 2003-06-26 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. NAND-type flash memory device with multi-page program, multi-page read, multi-block erase operations
US20030217323A1 (en) 2002-05-20 2003-11-20 Sandisk Corporation Increasing the effectiveness of error correction codes and operating multi-level memory systems by using information about the quality of the stored data
US20040022092A1 (en) 2002-08-01 2004-02-05 Ran Dvir Defects detection
US6917543B2 (en) 2002-08-30 2005-07-12 Nec Electronics Corporation Flash memory for improving write access time
US7135910B2 (en) 2002-09-27 2006-11-14 Sandisk Corporation Charge pump with fibonacci number multiplication
US20050160316A1 (en) 2002-12-02 2005-07-21 Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd Mechanism for reducing write problems by controlling charge pumps for flash memory
US7243275B2 (en) 2002-12-05 2007-07-10 Sandisk Corporation Smart verify for multi-state memories
US8054680B2 (en) 2003-05-28 2011-11-08 Renesas Electronics Corporation Semiconductor device
US6914823B2 (en) 2003-07-29 2005-07-05 Sandisk Corporation Detecting over programmed memory after further programming
US6917542B2 (en) 2003-07-29 2005-07-12 Sandisk Corporation Detecting over programmed memory
US20050024939A1 (en) 2003-07-29 2005-02-03 Jian Chen Detecting over programmed memory
US6922096B2 (en) 2003-08-07 2005-07-26 Sandisk Corporation Area efficient charge pump
US20050068802A1 (en) 2003-09-29 2005-03-31 Yoshiyuki Tanaka Semiconductor storage device and method of controlling the same
US7012835B2 (en) 2003-10-03 2006-03-14 Sandisk Corporation Flash memory data correction and scrub techniques
US7170802B2 (en) 2003-12-31 2007-01-30 Sandisk Corporation Flexible and area efficient column redundancy for non-volatile memories
US20050219896A1 (en) 2004-04-06 2005-10-06 Jian Chen Variable programming of non-volatile memory
US20060239111A1 (en) 2004-04-21 2006-10-26 Masaki Shingo Non-volatile semiconductor device and method for automatically recovering erase failure in the device
US7030683B2 (en) 2004-05-10 2006-04-18 Sandisk Corporation Four phase charge pump operable without phase overlap with improved efficiency
US7009889B2 (en) 2004-05-28 2006-03-07 Sandisk Corporation Comprehensive erase verification for non-volatile memory
US20060090112A1 (en) 2004-10-08 2006-04-27 International Business Machines Corporation Memory device verification of multiple write operations
US20060098505A1 (en) 2004-11-04 2006-05-11 Chih-Hung Cho Failure test method for split gate flash memory
US20070280000A1 (en) 2004-11-12 2007-12-06 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Method of writing data to a semiconductor memory device
US7345928B2 (en) 2004-12-14 2008-03-18 Sandisk Corporation Data recovery methods in multi-state memory after program fail
US20060140007A1 (en) 2004-12-29 2006-06-29 Raul-Adrian Cernea Non-volatile memory and method with shared processing for an aggregate of read/write circuits
US20060227602A1 (en) 2005-03-28 2006-10-12 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Semiconductor memory device
US7206230B2 (en) 2005-04-01 2007-04-17 Sandisk Corporation Use of data latches in cache operations of non-volatile memories
US7158421B2 (en) 2005-04-01 2007-01-02 Sandisk Corporation Use of data latches in multi-phase programming of non-volatile memories
US20060221714A1 (en) 2005-04-05 2006-10-05 Yan Li Read operation for non-volatile storage that includes compensation for coupling
US20070030732A1 (en) 2005-07-28 2007-02-08 Rino Micheloni Double page programming system and method
US20090100290A1 (en) 2005-08-22 2009-04-16 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Memory controller, nonvolatile memory device, nonvolatile memory system, and data writing method
US20070126494A1 (en) 2005-12-06 2007-06-07 Sandisk Corporation Charge pump having shunt diode for improved operating efficiency
US20070139099A1 (en) 2005-12-16 2007-06-21 Sandisk Corporation Charge pump regulation control for improved power efficiency
US20070171719A1 (en) 2005-12-19 2007-07-26 Hemink Gerrit J Method for programming non-volatile memory with reduced program disturb using modified pass voltages
US7428180B2 (en) 2006-01-25 2008-09-23 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Semiconductor memory devices and methods of testing for failed bits of semiconductor memory devices
US20070296391A1 (en) 2006-02-17 2007-12-27 Bertin Jacques J Current-monitoring apparatus
US20070234183A1 (en) 2006-03-31 2007-10-04 Sang-Won Hwang Multi-bit memory device and memory system
US7304893B1 (en) 2006-06-30 2007-12-04 Sandisk Corporation Method of partial page fail bit detection in flash memory devices
US7554311B2 (en) 2006-07-31 2009-06-30 Sandisk Corporation Hybrid charge pump regulation
US20080062770A1 (en) 2006-09-12 2008-03-13 Loc Tu Non-Volatile Memory With Linear Estimation of Initial Programming Voltage
US7368979B2 (en) 2006-09-19 2008-05-06 Sandisk Corporation Implementation of output floating scheme for hv charge pumps
US20080301532A1 (en) 2006-09-25 2008-12-04 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Non-volatile semiconductor memory device
US7716538B2 (en) 2006-09-27 2010-05-11 Sandisk Corporation Memory with cell population distribution assisted read margining
US7440319B2 (en) 2006-11-27 2008-10-21 Sandisk Corporation Apparatus with segmented bitscan for verification of programming
US7616499B2 (en) 2006-12-28 2009-11-10 Sandisk Corporation Retention margin program verification
US20080177956A1 (en) 2007-01-24 2008-07-24 Peddle Charles I Page-based failure management for flash memory
US20090153232A1 (en) 2007-05-25 2009-06-18 Atmel Corporation Low voltage charge pump
US20080307342A1 (en) 2007-06-08 2008-12-11 Apple Inc. Rendering Semi-Transparent User Interface Elements
US20090310423A1 (en) 2007-07-13 2009-12-17 Macronix International Co., Ltd. Method of programming and erasing a non-volatile memory array
US20090063918A1 (en) 2007-08-27 2009-03-05 Macronix International Co., Ltd. Apparatus and method for detecting word line leakage in memory devices
US20090225607A1 (en) 2007-08-27 2009-09-10 Macronix International Co., Ltd. Apparatus and method for detecting word line leakage in memory devices
US20090058507A1 (en) 2007-08-28 2009-03-05 Prajit Nandi Bottom Plate Regulated Charge Pump
US20090058506A1 (en) 2007-08-28 2009-03-05 Prajit Nandi Bottom Plate Regulation of Charge Pumps
US7843732B2 (en) 2007-08-30 2010-11-30 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Methods of operating multi-bit flash memory devices and related systems
US20090073763A1 (en) 2007-09-14 2009-03-19 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Method for controlling a non-volatile semiconductor memory device
US7864588B2 (en) 2007-09-17 2011-01-04 Spansion Israel Ltd. Minimizing read disturb in an array flash cell
US20090228739A1 (en) 2007-11-25 2009-09-10 Itzic Cohen Recovery while programming non-volatile memory (nvm)
US20100131809A1 (en) 2007-12-05 2010-05-27 Michael Katz Apparatus and methods for generating row-specific reading thresholds in flash memory
US20090153230A1 (en) 2007-12-12 2009-06-18 Feng Pan Low Voltage Charge Pump with Regulation
US20090190397A1 (en) 2008-01-30 2009-07-30 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Memory device and data reading method
EP2261806A1 (en) 2008-02-28 2010-12-15 Fujitsu Limited Storage device, storage controller, data transfer integrated circuit, and method of controlling storage
US20090287874A1 (en) 2008-05-13 2009-11-19 Microsoft Corporation Flash Recovery Employing Transaction Log
US20090295434A1 (en) 2008-06-02 2009-12-03 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Signal receiving device
US7969235B2 (en) 2008-06-09 2011-06-28 Sandisk Corporation Self-adaptive multi-stage charge pump
US20090316483A1 (en) 2008-06-23 2009-12-24 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Flash memory device and system including the same
US20090315616A1 (en) 2008-06-24 2009-12-24 Qui Vi Nguyen Clock Generator Circuit for a Charge Pump
US7683700B2 (en) 2008-06-25 2010-03-23 Sandisk Corporation Techniques of ripple reduction for charge pumps
US20090322413A1 (en) 2008-06-25 2009-12-31 Huynh Jonathan H Techniques of Ripple Reduction for Charge Pumps
US7864578B2 (en) 2008-06-30 2011-01-04 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Semiconductor memory repairing a defective bit and semiconductor memory system
US20100027336A1 (en) 2008-07-29 2010-02-04 Park June-Hong Non-volatile memory device and associated programming method using error checking and correction (ECC)
US20100054019A1 (en) 2008-08-29 2010-03-04 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Resistance change memory device
US20100070209A1 (en) 2008-09-18 2010-03-18 Enraf B.V. Method and apparatus for adaptively handling level measurements under unstable conditions
US20100082881A1 (en) 2008-09-30 2010-04-01 Micron Technology, Inc., Solid state storage device controller with expansion mode
US20100091568A1 (en) 2008-10-10 2010-04-15 Yan Li Nonvolatile Memory and Method With Reduced Program Verify by Ignoring Fastest and/or Slowest Programming Bits
US20100091573A1 (en) 2008-10-10 2010-04-15 Yan Li Nonvolatile Memory And Method With Reduced Program Verify By Ignoring Fastest And/Or Slowest Programming Bits
US7795952B2 (en) 2008-12-17 2010-09-14 Sandisk Corporation Regulation of recovery rates in charge pumps
US20100148856A1 (en) 2008-12-17 2010-06-17 Man Lung Lui Regulation of Recovery Rates in Charge Pumps
US20100174845A1 (en) 2009-01-05 2010-07-08 Sergey Anatolievich Gorobets Wear Leveling for Non-Volatile Memories: Maintenance of Experience Count and Passive Techniques
US20100174846A1 (en) 2009-01-05 2010-07-08 Alexander Paley Nonvolatile Memory With Write Cache Having Flush/Eviction Methods
US20100172180A1 (en) 2009-01-05 2010-07-08 Alexander Paley Non-Volatile Memory and Method With Write Cache Partitioning
US8040744B2 (en) 2009-01-05 2011-10-18 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Spare block management of non-volatile memories
US20100174847A1 (en) 2009-01-05 2010-07-08 Alexander Paley Non-Volatile Memory and Method With Write Cache Partition Management Methods
US8102705B2 (en) 2009-06-05 2012-01-24 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Structure and method for shuffling data within non-volatile memory devices
US8027195B2 (en) 2009-06-05 2011-09-27 SanDisk Technologies, Inc. Folding data stored in binary format into multi-state format within non-volatile memory devices
US20110013457A1 (en) 2009-07-15 2011-01-20 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Nonvolatile memory devices and programming methods thereof in which a program inhibit voltage is changed during programming
US7973592B2 (en) 2009-07-21 2011-07-05 Sandisk Corporation Charge pump with current based regulation
US20110035538A1 (en) 2009-08-06 2011-02-10 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Nonvolatile memory system using data interleaving scheme
US20110063918A1 (en) 2009-09-11 2011-03-17 Gen Pei Identifying at-risk data in non-volatile storage
US20110066793A1 (en) 2009-09-15 2011-03-17 Gregory Burd Implementing RAID In Solid State Memory
US20110099460A1 (en) 2009-10-28 2011-04-28 Gautam Ashok Dusija Non-Volatile Memory And Method With Post-Write Read And Adaptive Re-Write To Manage Errors
US20110096601A1 (en) 2009-10-28 2011-04-28 Gavens Lee M Non-Volatile Memory And Method With Accelerated Post-Write Read To Manage Errors
US20110099418A1 (en) 2009-10-28 2011-04-28 Jian Chen Non-Volatile Memory And Method With Post-Write Read And Adaptive Re-Write To Manage Errors
US20110145633A1 (en) 2009-12-15 2011-06-16 International Business Machines Corporation Blocking Write Acces to Memory Modules of a Solid State Drive
US20110148509A1 (en) 2009-12-17 2011-06-23 Feng Pan Techniques to Reduce Charge Pump Overshoot
US20110149651A1 (en) 2009-12-18 2011-06-23 Sergey Anatolievich Gorobets Non-Volatile Memory And Method With Atomic Program Sequence And Write Abort Detection
US20110161784A1 (en) 2009-12-30 2011-06-30 Selinger Robert D Method and Controller for Performing a Copy-Back Operation
US20110182121A1 (en) 2010-01-28 2011-07-28 Deepanshu Dutta Data recovery for non-volatile memory based on count of data state-specific fails
US20120008410A1 (en) 2010-07-09 2012-01-12 Huynh Jonathan H Detection of Word-Line Leakage in Memory Arrays: Current Based Approach
US20120008384A1 (en) 2010-07-09 2012-01-12 Yan Li Detection of Word-Line Leakage in Memory Arrays
US20120008405A1 (en) 2010-07-09 2012-01-12 Grishma Shailesh Shah Detection of Broken Word-Lines in Memory Arrays
US20120311407A1 (en) * 2011-05-30 2012-12-06 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Methods of operating non-volatile memory devices during write operation interruption, non-volatile memory devices, memories and electronic systems operating the same

Non-Patent Citations (20)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
Eitan et al., "NROM: A Novel Localized Trapping, 2-Bit Nonvolatile Memory Cell," IEEE Electron Device Letters, vol. 21, No. 11, Nov. 2000, pp. 543-545.
Notification of Transmittal of the International Search Report and the Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority, or the Declaration for Int'l Application No. PCT/US2012/048080 mailed Oct. 25, 2012, 11 pages.
Pan, "Charge Pump Circuit Design," McGraw-Hill, 2006, 26 pages.
Pylarinos et al., "Charge Pumps: An Overview," Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Toronto, 7 pages. 2001.
U.S. Appl. No. 11/303,387 entitled "Charge Pump Regulation Control for Improved Power Efficiency," filed Dec. 16, 2011, 25 pages.
U.S. Appl. No. 12/506,998 entitled "Charge Pump with Current Based Regulation," filed Jul. 21, 2009, 21 pages.
U.S. Appl. No. 12/640,820 entitled "Techniques to Reduce Charge Pump Overshoot," filed Dec. 17, 2009, 28 pages.
U.S. Appl. No. 12/642,584 entitled "Maintaining Updates of Multi-Level Non-Volatile Memory in Binary Non-Volatile Memory," filed Dec. 18, 2009, 76 pages.
U.S. Appl. No. 12/642,611 entitled "Non-Volatile Memory with Multi-Gear Control Using On-Chip Folding of Data," filed Dec. 18, 2009, 74 pages.
U.S. Appl. No. 12/642,649 entitled "Data Transfer Flows for On-Chip Folding," filed Dec. 18, 2009, 73 pages.
U.S. Appl. No. 12/642,740 entitled "Non-Volatile Memory and Method With Atomic Program Sequence and Write Abort Detection," filed Dec. 18, 2009, 63 pages.
U.S. Appl. No. 12/833,146 entitled "Detection of Word-Line Leakage in Memory Arrays," filed Jul. 9, 2010, 57 pages.
U.S. Appl. No. 12/833,167 entitled "Detection of Broken Word-Lines in Memory Arrays," filed Jul. 9, 2010, 55 pages.
U.S. Appl. No. 13/016,732 entitled "Detection of Word-Line Leakage in Memory Arrays: Current Based Approach," filed Jan. 28, 2011, 77 pages.
U.S. Appl. No. 13/101,765 entitled "Detection of Broken Word-Lines in Memory Arrays," filed May 5, 2011, 63 pages.
U.S. Appl. No. 13/193,083 entitled "Non-Volatile Memory and Method with Accelerated Post-Write Read Using Combined Verification of Multiple Pages," filed Jul. 28, 2011, 100 pages.
U.S. Appl. No. 13/280,217 entitled "Post-Write Read in Non-Volatile Memories Using Comparison of Data as Written in Binary and Multi-State Formats," filed Oct. 24, 2011, 110 pages.
U.S. Appl. No. 13/332,780 entitled "Simultaneous Sensing of Multiple Wordlines and Detection of NAND Failures," filed Dec. 21, 2011, 121 pages.
U.S. Appl. No. 61/142,620 entitled "Balanced Performance for On-Chip Folding on Non-Volatile Memories," filed Jun. 9, 2011, 144 pages.
U.S. Appl. No. 61/495,053 entitled "Balanced Performance for On-Chip Folding on Non-Volatile Memories," filed Jun. 9, 2011, 86 pages.

Cited By (37)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US9639422B2 (en) * 2012-06-07 2017-05-02 Micron Technology, Inc. Synchronized transfer of data and corresponding error correction data
US20160196181A1 (en) * 2012-06-07 2016-07-07 Micron Technology, Inc. Synchronized transfer of data and corresponding error correction data
US10152373B2 (en) 2012-06-07 2018-12-11 Micron Technology, Inc. Methods of operating memory including receipt of ECC data
US9490035B2 (en) 2012-09-28 2016-11-08 SanDisk Technologies, Inc. Centralized variable rate serializer and deserializer for bad column management
US10048879B2 (en) * 2013-03-14 2018-08-14 Seagate Technology Llc Nonvolatile memory recovery after power failure during write operations or erase operations
US20170038985A1 (en) * 2013-03-14 2017-02-09 Seagate Technology Llc Nonvolatile memory data recovery after power failure
US10644726B2 (en) 2013-10-18 2020-05-05 Universite De Nantes Method and apparatus for reconstructing a data block
US9612953B1 (en) 2014-01-16 2017-04-04 Pure Storage, Inc. Data placement based on data properties in a tiered storage device system
US9766972B2 (en) 2014-08-07 2017-09-19 Pure Storage, Inc. Masking defective bits in a storage array
US10268548B2 (en) 2014-08-07 2019-04-23 Pure Storage, Inc. Failure mapping in a storage array
US9558069B2 (en) 2014-08-07 2017-01-31 Pure Storage, Inc. Failure mapping in a storage array
US9880899B2 (en) 2014-08-07 2018-01-30 Pure Storage, Inc. Die-level monitoring in a storage cluster
US9437321B2 (en) 2014-10-28 2016-09-06 Sandisk Technologies Llc Error detection method
US9355735B1 (en) * 2015-02-20 2016-05-31 Sandisk Technologies Inc. Data recovery in a 3D memory device with a short circuit between word lines
US9659666B2 (en) 2015-08-31 2017-05-23 Sandisk Technologies Llc Dynamic memory recovery at the sub-block level
US9570160B1 (en) 2015-10-29 2017-02-14 Sandisk Technologies Llc Non-volatile storage system with defect detetction and early programming termination
US10198315B2 (en) 2016-02-29 2019-02-05 Sandisk Technologies Llc Non-volatile memory with corruption recovery
US9996417B2 (en) 2016-04-12 2018-06-12 Apple Inc. Data recovery in memory having multiple failure modes
US9711227B1 (en) 2016-04-28 2017-07-18 Sandisk Technologies Llc Non-volatile memory with in field failure prediction using leakage detection
US9691485B1 (en) * 2016-07-11 2017-06-27 Sandisk Technologies Llc Storage system and method for marginal write-abort detection using a memory parameter change
US9672905B1 (en) 2016-07-22 2017-06-06 Pure Storage, Inc. Optimize data protection layouts based on distributed flash wear leveling
US9747158B1 (en) 2017-01-13 2017-08-29 Pure Storage, Inc. Intelligent refresh of 3D NAND
US10755787B2 (en) 2018-06-28 2020-08-25 Apple Inc. Efficient post programming verification in a nonvolatile memory
US10762967B2 (en) 2018-06-28 2020-09-01 Apple Inc. Recovering from failure in programming a nonvolatile memory
US10936455B2 (en) 2019-02-11 2021-03-02 Apple Inc. Recovery of data failing due to impairment whose severity depends on bit-significance value
US11029874B2 (en) 2019-07-30 2021-06-08 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Rolling XOR protection in efficient pipeline
US11500569B2 (en) 2019-07-30 2022-11-15 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Rolling XOR protection in efficient pipeline
US10915394B1 (en) 2019-09-22 2021-02-09 Apple Inc. Schemes for protecting data in NVM device using small storage footprint
US11106530B2 (en) * 2019-12-20 2021-08-31 Micron Technology, Inc. Parity protection
US20210390014A1 (en) * 2019-12-20 2021-12-16 Micron Technology, Inc. Parity protection
US11513889B2 (en) * 2019-12-20 2022-11-29 Micron Technology, Inc. Parity protection
US11211119B1 (en) 2020-06-11 2021-12-28 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. QLC programming method with staging of fine data
US11631457B2 (en) 2020-06-11 2023-04-18 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. QLC programming method with staging of fine data
US11568938B2 (en) 2020-11-03 2023-01-31 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. QLC data programming
US11861195B2 (en) 2021-03-15 2024-01-02 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. TLC data programming with hybrid parity
US11550657B1 (en) 2021-09-01 2023-01-10 Apple Inc. Efficient programming schemes in a nonvolatile memory
US11967367B2 (en) 2021-10-07 2024-04-23 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Nonvolatile memory device and storage device including nonvolatile memory device

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
TW201316341A (en) 2013-04-16
WO2013016393A1 (en) 2013-01-31
US20130031429A1 (en) 2013-01-31

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
US8775901B2 (en) Data recovery for defective word lines during programming of non-volatile memory arrays
US9098428B2 (en) Data recovery on cluster failures and ECC enhancements with code word interleaving
US9165683B2 (en) Multi-word line erratic programming detection
US8214700B2 (en) Non-volatile memory and method with post-write read and adaptive re-write to manage errors
US8873288B2 (en) Simultaneous sensing of multiple wordlines and detection of NAND failures
EP2737486B1 (en) Non-volatile memory and method with accelerated post-write read using combined verification of multiple pages
US9213601B2 (en) Adaptive data re-compaction after post-write read verification operations
EP2494553B1 (en) Non-volatile memory and method with post-write read and adaptive re-write to manage errors
EP2494554B1 (en) Non-volatile memory and method with accelerated post-write read to manage errors
US8713380B2 (en) Non-volatile memory and method having efficient on-chip block-copying with controlled error rate
US20130031431A1 (en) Post-Write Read in Non-Volatile Memories Using Comparison of Data as Written in Binary and Multi-State Formats
US8830745B2 (en) Memory system with unverified program step

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
AS Assignment

Owner name: SANDISK TECHNOLOGIES INC., TEXAS

Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:SHARON, ERAN;ALROD, IDAN;REEL/FRAME:026675/0128

Effective date: 20110727

STCF Information on status: patent grant

Free format text: PATENTED CASE

AS Assignment

Owner name: SANDISK TECHNOLOGIES LLC, TEXAS

Free format text: CHANGE OF NAME;ASSIGNOR:SANDISK TECHNOLOGIES INC;REEL/FRAME:038807/0850

Effective date: 20160516

MAFP Maintenance fee payment

Free format text: PAYMENT OF MAINTENANCE FEE, 4TH YEAR, LARGE ENTITY (ORIGINAL EVENT CODE: M1551)

Year of fee payment: 4

MAFP Maintenance fee payment

Free format text: PAYMENT OF MAINTENANCE FEE, 8TH YEAR, LARGE ENTITY (ORIGINAL EVENT CODE: M1552); ENTITY STATUS OF PATENT OWNER: LARGE ENTITY

Year of fee payment: 8